ALBANY, N.Y. -- The State Museum may not be able to give her a name but experts here can give her a face.

The approximately 250-year-old remains of a woman were found last April by Museum archaeologists, who monitored the South Pearl Street reconstruction by the state Department of Transportation.

Now, Museum archaeologists and a Museum sculptor are reconstructing her face using her skull to learn more about her life. She was buried in a Lutheran cemetery but either was overlooked when the cemetery was relocated or she may have been in an unmarked grave.

"It's just a fascinating opportunity," said Museum archaeologist Charles Fisher, who is leading the project. "By studying the skeleton, we learn about what an individual's life was like in this town. So far, we have found that it was one of incredible physical hardship." Fisher estimates that the woman, probably of Northern European descent, was between 40 to 45 years of age when she died. Records regarding the Lutheran cemetery that once occupied that section of South Pearl Street just south of State Street are incomplete and researchers may never know her name.

The bones detail that she had very strong muscles indicating she may have been a servant or a laborer, according to Fisher. They also show that she suffered from severe health problems, possibly including rickets as a child. Many of her teeth had fallen out years before she died.

The reconstruction of the woman's face is an ongoing process. So far, bone fragments have been re-attached to the skull by Museum archaeologist Andrea Lain.

Now, drawing from the expertise of State Police forensic experts, researchers at Yale University and paintings from that era, Gay Malin, a Museum preparator and a sculptor, is painstakingly creating molding casts of the skull. Malin will then take the cast of the skull and began to create a face using clay and other materials.

"I'll give it humanity," Malin said. "I'll make her human."

The casts will be kept as part of the Museum's collections and will be used in future exhibits and education programs in keeping with the Museum's role within the State Education Department. This skeleton, along with two others found during the excavation, will be buried during a ceremony in May with Albany's First Lutheran Church, the oldest congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Fisher said the historic cemetery shows that the Lutherans were given the right to freely assemble and bury their dead at this location. The property also included a church and parsonage built in the late 17th century.

"I think a really important thing is that the cemetery is actually physical evidence of religious tolerance in the colony," Fisher added.

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ALBANY, N.Y. - A live black widow spider, extremely rare in upstate New York, has been donated to the New York State Museum, entomologists said today.

A Niskayuna family who had been keeping it as a pet collected it last autumn from outside their cellar window. The spider produced three egg sacs while in captivity, and spiderlings have recently hatched from a sac produced in mid-May.

While the black widow, Latrodectus mactans, is known to occur on Long Island and Staten Island, it seems that the climate is usually too cool in upstate New York for the species, according to entomologist Jeffrey Barnes.

Barnes said the only other live black widow spider he has seen from upstate New York came from a vehicle that had recently arrived from the Midwest.

"This Niskayuna specimen is the first naturally occurring black widow I have seen in upstate New York. This female is fertile and has produced spiderlings, indicating there are probably other black widows out there," Barnes said.

The reason might be that warming trends in recent years have allowed this species to spread beyond its former, more southern range, Barnes added.

The black widow will be euthanized and added to the State Museum's collection of 600,000 insects and arachnids that is used by researchers, both at the Museum and at other institutions throughout the world.

Black widows tend to be rather shy around humans. A bite, however, can be painful with swelling, muscle spasms and other symptoms lasting up to three days.

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ALBANY, N.Y. - Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century explores the life of one of the most charismatic politicians to ever occupy the White House and New York's State Capitol. The exhibition, from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, will be at the New York State Museum from April 28 to July 9 in Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition includes more than 116 items, including paintings, photographs, political cartoons and memorabilia documenting Roosevelt's enthusiastic pursuit of what he called "the strenuous life."

Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century is made possible in part by the Office of the Governor of New York State, Gov. George Pataki.

In an adjunct gallery, the New York State Library and the State Museum, programs of the State Education Department, will present Theodore Roosevelt: Popular Image and the Collector, selections from the Lyall D. Squair Collection of Theodore Roosevelt Memorabilia. The Squair Collection was one of the largest private collections of manuscripts, books and artifacts relating to Roosevelt as a New Yorker and as president. Roosevelt, governor of New York from 1899-1900, came back to Albany in 1916 to dedicate the New York State Museum at the State Education Building.

When Roosevelt became the 26th president at age 42 after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, he was the youngest man ever to do so. He infused the executive office with the same frenetic energy that characterized his life. He was the wielder of the Big Stick, the builder of the Panama Canal, father of the conservation movement and the modern day Navy, and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this exhibition, curated by Portrait Gallery Historian James G. Barber, Roosevelt's life (1858-1919) is told through such objects as:

• An unequaled collection of Roosevelt's finest portraits, including a 1905 sculpture by Frederick MacMonnies depicting Roosevelt as Rough Rider and a 1920 bronze bust by Gutzon Borglum -- a version of the original plaster model Borglum used in carving Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
• A colorful collection of original cartoon drawings that were published in such journals as Puck, Harper's Weekly and Life.
• Photographs of Roosevelt living the "strenuous life" as Rough Rider in 1898, at the Panama Canal in 1906 operating a steam shovel, on safari in Africa in 1909-1910, and on the campaign trail seeking an unprecedented third term as president in 1912.

From Youth to the Presidency

Roosevelt was born in 1858 in New York City. Once a frail child, he became a national celebrity whose persona was so magnetic that the public, one reporter noted, could "no more look the other way than the small boy can turn his head away from a circus parade followed by a steam calliope."

"I rose like a rocket," is how Roosevelt described his meteoric political career, which began when he won a seat in the state legislature in Albany in 1881. It was only a year earlier that he graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude.

By the mid-1880s, he owned two ranches in the Badlands of the Dakota territory, where he lived the rigorous life of a cowboy and hunter. He wrote several books, including a highly acclaimed Naval history of the War of 1812 and a memoir of the West.

By September 1901, when he became the 26th president after the assassination of McKinley, he had served as United States civil service commissioner, New York City police commissioner, assistant secretary of the Navy, governor of New York and vice president. He won a reputation as a fearless reformer who had made significant inroads against graft, corruption and the spoils system wherever he encountered them.

A highlight of these years occurred in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Congress had authorized Roosevelt to organize a volunteer cavalry regiment of Rough Riders, and he led them in a famous charge up San Juan Heights in Cuba.

Among the memorabilia from that time on exhibit are:

• From Roosevelt's cowboy days in the Dakota Territory, his sterling silver hunting knife by Tiffany & Co., dated 1884; his Sharp's Old Reliable rifle, his leather chaps; and the iron brand of the Elkhorn Ranch, ca. 1884.
• Roosevelt's Rough Rider uniform, including his hat by Stetson, and William Dinwiddie's well-known photograph of the Rough Riders posing victoriously at the crest of San Juan Heights in 1898.
• The nightstick he carried as New York City police commissioner and an umbrella from the McKinley-Roosevelt campaign of 1900.

The Roosevelt Presidency

On Sept. 14, 1901, after only six months as vice president and after the McKinley assassination, Roosevelt became president. From the beginning, Roosevelt's boundless energy was apparent. His face became so familiar that he became the darling of political cartoonists nationwide. Even mail addressed only with eyeglasses and teeth would be delivered to the White House without question.

Soon nicknamed the "Trust Buster," Roosevelt worked tirelessly to regulate the monopolistic excesses of big business, pitting himself against such industrial giants as J. Pierpont Morgan, who had controlling interest in several major railroads and industries.

Roosevelt was equally energetic, and aggressive, in foreign affairs. For example, in his determination to construct the Panama Canal, he took advantage of an uprising of Panamanians against the government of Colombia, which at that time was controlled by Panama. He promptly recognized the new government of Panama and negotiated a treaty that offered $10 million for the rights to the Canal Zone, a proposal the Colombians had rejected. Roosevelt considered the building of the canal a milestone of his presidency and personally oversaw virtually every phase of its progress.

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of his presidency was the drive to preserve public lands; he established four wild game preserves, five national parks, 51 bird reservations and 150 national forests. He designated 18 national monuments including the Grand Canyon.

Items illustrating this time period include:

• Photographs taken in 1903 of Roosevelt with conservationist John Muir at Yosemite in California, and with party conservationists and politicians, posing in front of an enormous redwood tree called the "Grizzly Giant."
• A Teddy Bear, ca. 1903, and Teddy Bear books and a ceramic pitcher, reminders of the enduring craze inspired by Roosevelt's legendary refusal to shoot a black bear that had been tormented, wounded and run up a tree by a pack of hounds.

Theodore Roosevelt, Civilian

Before leaving office in 1909, Roosevelt vigorously campaigned for his successor, William Howard Taft. Within weeks after Taft's election, with typical zest, Roosevelt embarked with his son Kermit on an African safari, organized in cooperation with the Smithsonian. It lasted nearly a year and resulted in hundreds of specimens for the Institution's collections. After the safari, he promptly began an extended tour of Europe with his wife.

Upon his return to the United States, Roosevelt decided he would run for a third time in light of his dissatisfaction with what he considered President Taft's lack of leadership. When Roosevelt lost the Republican Party's nomination, his supporters formed the Progressive or Bull Moose Party and nominated him as their candidate.

The campaign was volatile -- Roosevelt was wounded in an assassination attempt -- and it generated tremendous response, both pro and con, from the press and public. Although he beat Taft in both the popular vote and the Electoral College, the split vote gave the election to Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson.

After the election, Roosevelt campaigned for national issues. In the months leading to America's involvement in World War I, he became the nation's foremost advocate for preparedness, and even began laying plans to raise a division of volunteer mounted infantry. The Wilson administration declined his offers to participate in the conflict, but Roosevelt's four enlisted sons more than upheld the family reputation for service. In July 1918, the youngest, Quentin, died in aerial combat over France, and two of his brothers were wounded.

Roosevelt remained active in politics and foreign affairs after Quentin's death, but his health deteriorated quickly. He died in his sleep on Jan. 6, 1919.

This exhibition has been organized by the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Manhattan Sites and Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. Partial funding has been provided by the Smithsonian Institution Special Exhibition Fund and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

Additional funding was provided by Metropolitan Life Foundation.

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*Color slides are available by calling 518-486-2003.

The New York State Museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

ALBANY, NY -- Soon students around the state will be able to tap into the vast resources of the New York State Museum without even leaving their classrooms. Today, the State Museum participated in a teleconference broadcast on Capitol Hill advising U.S. senators on advancing technology in education.

As millions of children head back to school, Education Technology -- the Public-Private Partnership gave museums and other institutions a chance to showcase what's available to students through special technology programs.

In the next year, the New York State Museum will produce teleconference programs for students across the state. One program will teach fourth and seventh graders about the Iroquois Long House, one of the life-size exhibits the Museum features, according to Pat Jordan, the Museum's Acting Chief of Educational and Public Programs, who will speak to the senators.

"The objective is to instruct students on the cultural history of the Iroquois people of New York state," Jordan said. Students will be able to view how the Iroquois lived without leaving their classrooms.

The State Museum is also in the process of installing a "Multi-Mimsy" collections management system, which will eventually allow students throughout the state to visit the museum's collections from a computer in the school library.

Eventually, the State Museum plans links with other museums and institutions that will give students the opportunity to view collections and participate in programs from around the world.

Other institutions participating in Wednesday's event include: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of Photography Film & Television in the United Kingdom, The Museum of Television and Radio from New York City and the Smithsonian.

ALBANY, NY – New York State Paleontologist Ed Landing, known for his research about the the earliest life in New York and other parts of the U.S., has won a prestigious award recognizing his research on the geology of Canada.

Dr. Landing is the first U.S. citizen and first paleontologist to win the R.J.W. Douglas Medal. The honor is bestowed annually by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists to recognize scholars who make outstanding contributions to the understanding the sedimentary geology of that country. The medal was presented May 8 at the Society’s annual meeting in Calgary, which draws prominent geologists from around the world.

Landing, who has won top awards for several scientific papers and a commendation from the New York State Assembly, noted that such honors illustrate how scholarship an enhance public education.

“A lifetime career award like the Douglas Medal shows that you can combine scientific originality with service, like writing exhibit text and caring for the State Museum’s fossil collections,’’ he said.

In bestowing the medal, the Canadian Society cited Landing’s work tracking the evolution of Earth’s oldest animals, particularly his data on their origins in eastern Newfoundland. The research led to definition of a time standard known as the Precambrian- Cambrian boundary, which has provided scientists with far more accurate chronology than they once had. Recently, Landing has used evidence supplied by the rocks in New York and Canada to propose the likely production of major gas and oil deposits when ancient seas were very high.

The state paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the State Museum since 1981,Landing is the author of six books. Forty-seven of his 115 peer-reviewed papers are based on his field work in Canada and he has conducted field studies in all but three provinces and territories. That work has helped provide a more complete understanding of early life in New York.

“The work I have done in Canada supplements what we know in New York,’’ he said. “By looking at similar rocks in southern Quebec and western Newfoundland, I have come to understand the history of the Taconic hills of New York and other important developments.”

Landing has devoted five National Science Foundation grants, totaling about $1.5 million, to tracing the evolutionary origins of modern marine groups worldwide. He co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature about the Museum’s discovery of the Earth’s oldest tree fossil in the Catskill Mountains, providing an important glimpse of what the forests looked like 380 million years ago.

Landing became interested in Early Paleozoic rocks and fossils as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, devoting his doctoral thesis to Early Paleozoic biostratigraphy based on field work along the St. Lawrence River, in southern New Brunswick and parts of western Newfoundland. He has conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, with the United States Geological Survey in Denver and at the University of Toronto.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518)474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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In collaboration with the New York State Museum and the New York State Archives, The Community Consortium, Inc., will present two Saturday panel discussions on June 5th and June 12th at the New York State Museum, focusing on the history of psychiatry from the patients' perspective.

The Community Consortium, a non-profit organization of ex-patients and their allies, works to end the marginalization of people with psychiatric disabilities and to foster their integration into the community.

These educational programs expand on themes presented in the exhibit "Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic," on display at the State Museum through September 19th. The exhibit uses artifacts from patients' suitcases discovered in an attic at Willard (NY) State Hospital and material from medical records to present the life stories of 12 people who spent decades at Willard from the late 19th-late-20th centuries.

On June 5th from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Museum Theater, a panel entitled, "The History of Mental Health Services: Alternative Views," will feature Patricia Deegan, Ph.D., an ex-patient and a pioneering scholar in the history of psychiatry from the patients' perspective. She will present a slide show summarizing her work in documenting ex-patient viewpoints, which have been ignored in historical accounts, and contrasting the "official" views on the history of psychiatry with the experiences of asylum inmates from the mid-19th-late 20th centuries.

Author Brad Edmondson will also be on the panel. His book on the history of New York State's insane asylums, Empire of Madness, will be published by Cornell University Press in 2005. Edmondson will speak on Willard's founding during a period of intense national controversy about treatment philosophies in the 1860s. As the first officially "custodial" institution, Willard set a national trend that played out over the next 100 years. The panel will be moderated by Gloria Bartowski, M.L.S., of the New York State Archives.

On June 12th from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Museum Theater, a panel "Mental Patient Narratives: Critiquing the System, Healing the Self," will feature Gail Hornstein, Ph.D., Shery Mead, M.S.W., and Steven Periard. Dr. Hornstein will talk about her current research, a large-scale project using first-person narratives by psychiatric patients to reconceive fundamental assumptions about madness and its treatment. These narratives offer a provocative alternative to standard views of the mind and mental illness. Ms. Mead, an ex-patient researcher who did ground- breaking theoretical work on peer support, will discuss the construction and deconstruction of the "mental patient" narrative. She will focus on the need for psychiatric patients to unlearn "the mental illness narrative" and begin to create an alternate story. Periard, an oral historian, will speak about the themes which emerged from 200 oral histories of mental patients in New York State. The narratives, which were collected by a project he headed from 1999-2003, included, among other topics, stories of trauma and abuse that were ignored by the mental health system. Darby Penney, M.L.S., a guest curator of the exhibit "Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic," will moderate the panel.

These programs are supported by funds from the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Museum or the State Archives.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation's longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, NY – As part of the celebration of the 2009 Hudson-Champlain Quadricentennial celebration, the New York State Office of Cultural Education (OCE) will present at the New York State Museum the exhibition “1609,” which will re-examine Henry Hudson’s voyage, the myths that surround it, and explore the legacies of Hudson’s unexpected discovery.

The State Museum, State Archives, State Library and State Office of Educational Broadcasting, which make up OCE, are collaborating on the “1609” exhibition. It is scheduled to be open July 3, 2009 through March of 2010 in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall.

Other quadricentennial events will include a two-month tour along the Hudson River and Champlain Canal, led by the New York State Museum’s historic Day Peckinpaugh, a 259-foot, 1921 canal boat. The Half Moon, historic barges and other large working boats will also participate in the tour in August and September 2009. It will stop at 15 ports from Burlington, Vt. to New York Harbor. Visitors will be able to step onboard to view exhibits on 400 years of maritime progress and advancement. The tour is organized by the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor, in conjunction with the State Museum, Saratoga National Historical Park and the New York State Canal Corporation.

The “1609” exhibition will be presented in four parts. The first section will focus on what life was like for both the Dutch and Native Peoples of New York before 1609 and the events of that year. The visitor will then look at the myths that Hudson planned to come here, and that Native Americans greeted him and his crew with joy and awe. The exhibition will attempt to dispel those myths and explore with the visitor what is known about Hudson and the 1609 voyage and the Native American response. The third section will confront the myths relating to the short-term impact of the voyage – the consequences for the Dutch and the Native Americans. Finally, the visitor will be able to examine the long-term legacy of the Native Americans and Dutch, and how they affected subsequent historical events and American culture today.

In addition to artifacts from throughout OCE collections, “1609” will also feature paintings by Capital District expert historical artist L.F. Tantillo.

Archaeologist James Bradley, an expert on Native Americans, and Russell Shorto, an authority on colonial Dutch history, have written text for the exhibition. Bradley is the author of “Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region 1600-1664,” and a guest curator for portions of the exhibition. Shorto, who resides in the Netherlands, authored “The Island at the Center of the World,” the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America.

Steven Comer, a Mohican Native American living within the original territory of the Mohican people, has provided cultural information and consulting for the project.

To complement the exhibition, the Museum also will present a program, “The Stars of 1609” on Saturdays, May 2 and 30 and June 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Participants will peer through the ages to see the night sky as it looked to Henry Hudson and his crew in 1609. There also will be a discussion about the navigational techniques of European explorers, their tools and equipment and 17th-century astronomy. The program is free but visitors must obtain tickets at the Museum’s front lobby desk.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY – This year’s Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebration provided inspiration for the New York State Museum’s 8th annual “Haunted Museum of Unnatural History – the 1609 Quadricenterror.”

The “Haunted Museum” will be open October 24 and 25 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., October 30 from 6 to 10 p.m. and on Halloween, October 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. It will be located in the Student Center on the Museum’s first floor.

The “Monster Mash & Bash” will provide light-hearted fun for younger children, aged 10 and under. It will be held on the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace Gallery on October 24, 25 and 31, from noon to 4 p.m. Children and their families are invited to dress for a 1 p.m. costume parade, which will end at the Carousel. The“Monster Mash & Bash” will feature Halloween crafts. The Smile Monster will make an appearance on Sunday, October 25 and Saturday, October 31.

Visitors to the “Haunted Museum” will first enter a pirate ship, the “Hell Moon,” where they will see crew members representing those on Henry Hudson’s Halfmoon. They then will step aboard a dock that curves around in the “Port of Terror” where they will be surrounded by “water” and sounds of the ocean. Stepping back on land, visitors will enter into the dark “Alleyway,” a lawless area where beggars and thieves roam free in old New Netherland. Next will be the “Tenement,” a dingy, overcrowded room of tight quarters where society’s most unfortunate rest wherever they can. The hopelessness and despair led some of the poor to the next area -- the “Asylum,” which includes an area where lobotomies are performed. From there, visitors will enter the mouth and then into the mind of one of the patients. The final encounter will be the gravesite where Henry Hudson may make an appearance.

Visitors are advised that the intense lighting, sounds and special effects are not for everyone and definitely not suitable for children under 10. Anyone under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. “Haunted Museum” visitors are asked not to wear costumes, but costumes are encouraged for the “Monster Mash & Bash.”

Proceeds from both events will benefit the Museum’s after-school programs for Albany city youth. Admission to the “Haunted Museum” is $8. Monster Mash admission is $2. The Halloween events are a significant source of funding for the Museum’s youth programs, making it possible for many children to attend educational after-school programs tuition-free or at reduced cost. Youths involved in the Discovery Squad teen program and the Time Tunnel summer camp, are taking an active role in planning and building the “Haunted Museum.”

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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Let It Shine: Improvisations in African-American Star Quilts opens at the New York State Museum on January 24th.

This traveling exhibition -- the first in the nation to address and celebrate improvisations in traditional star quilt designs – will showcase 23 quilts from the extraordinary collection of Eli Leon in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall through March 28.

The quilts were made in the mid- to late-20th century in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and California by African-American women and reflect unique characteristics of their makers’ cultural traditions. Some quilts have more than one maker, with mothers and daughters, aunts and nieces, or friends and neighbors collaborating in the creation of one work. All of the quilts contain traditional star motifs but reflect the spontaneous energy of their creators who did not limit themselves to expected pattern combinations and colors.

Leon, a quilt scholar and collector, is guest curator of the exhibition. He has assembled his collection of African-American quilts, one of the largest in the world, over a span of two decades. Many of the quilts were found in and around Oakland, CA., and made by women whose families moved to the Bay area during and after the Great Depression to seek work in shipyards and other industries. Leon has also taken several research and collecting trips to the South and is the author of five exhibition catalogues on improvisation in African-American quilt making. Selections from his collection have been exhibited at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., the High Museum in Atlanta, and the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA.

Leon observes that this genre of African-American quilt makers have a long and rich tradition as prolific artists “who maintain a generous attitude toward the accidental. They embrace innovations that originate beyond the conscious domain, using approximate measurements and dealing creatively with resulting piecing predicaments. The design is conceived of not as a fixed pattern but as an invitation to variation.”

On Saturday, February 7 the State Museum is presenting a Quilters Forum in the South Hall Gallery, sponsored by Black Dimensions in Art Inc. of Schenectady. Quilts will be exhibited from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and regional and ethnic quilters will demonstrate, display and discuss the art and craft of quilt making at afternoon programs. The programs and presenters include: Francelise Dawkins, 12:30-1:15 p.m., "Artquilts: Beyond Multicultural;" Patricia Murray, 1:30-2:15 p.m., “African-American Quilters: Preservers of African Tradition” and Lizzi Spirig, 2:30-3:15, "Life As Inspiration." The event is free and open to the public.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation's longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

A lecture on October 29th will kick off the opening of a new exhibition at the New York State Museum on Albany's Rapp Road African-American community, a continuously occupied settlement in the Pine Bush first established in the 1930s and now a designated state and national historic district.

Emma Dickson, a second generation Rapp Road resident, and Jennifer Lemak, State Museum research fellow and community historian, will present "From Mississippi to the Promised Land - Exploring Albany's Rapp Road Community" as part of the October Museum Series Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in the Museum Theater.

Following the lecture, Lemak will lead a tour of the newly opened exhibition she curated -- Bound for the Promised Land: Albany's Rapp Road Communty.

Located between Washington Avenue Extension and Western Avenue, the Rapp Road community was established in the 1930s and is still inhabited by 18 of the original 23 families. It began during the Great Migration, a period between 1910 and 1940 when hundreds of thousands of southern African-Americans left the South for the North in search of a more prosperous life, freer of racial prejudice.

Rev. Louis W. Parson, an African-American preacher from Shubuta, Mississippi, and his wife, Frances were among those who came North looking for a new home. When the Parsons encountered a group of deeply devoted women in Albany holding prayer groups they stayed and established a church in the South End, the First Church of God and Christ. Believing strongly in his new church and in helping his fellow man, Rev. Parson began shuttling back and forth between Shubuta and Albany, transporting African- Americans in his seven-passenger Buick. The trips were dangerous because most of the migrants were poor sharecroppers, but the preacher persevered, despite warrants for his arrest.

In the early 1930s, the Parsons and another church member purchased rural land in Albany's pine barren so that their deeply religious congregation could move from the urban South End - then the home of bars, prostitution and gambling -- to establish a more suitable, self-sustaining agrarian way of life.

In September 2002, the Rapp Road community was designated a New York State Historic District and, four months later, was also designated as a New York State Historic District.

"For too long the African American experience has not been properly studied," said Lemak. "The Rapp Road community is just one of many neighborhoods that make up the fabric of our greater community. Studying it only makes understanding our local history a richer experience."

Lemak has been researching the settlement for three years as part of her doctoral dissertation, and plans to publish her work in book form next year. She interviewed residents here and in Shubuta, traveling there in November 2002, along with Dickson and her sister, Girley Ferguson, to find out what life was like for those who did and didn't come to Albany.

Photos and objects in the exhibition provide insight into the history and everyday life of the Rapp Road community. Included is a prayer book used in prayer groups organized by women in each other's homes, quilt squares made in Shubuta for the quilting groups who socialized while they worked and a 100-pound flour sack that was bleached so that it could be used as clothing by the resourceful residents whose families had been poor sharecroppers.

The exhibition will be open through February 29th outside the Crossroads Gallery, the location of the Dreaming of Timbuctoo exhibition about another African-American settlement in New York State.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

A noon parade at the Empire State Plaza on Saturday, June 7 will kick off the 4TH Annual Albany Reads Festival, an event at the New York State Museum organized to promote reading among South End students and build community spirit in Albany's South End.

Mayor and Mrs. Gerald D. Jennings, honorary chairs of the festival, will lead the parade, which will begin at the Empire State Plaza's Firefighters' Memorial. It also will feature the Albany Police Pipe Band and Alva the Bookworm.

The parade will end at the State Museum where Mayor Jennings will present community awards. Activities will continue until 4 p.m. on the museum's fourth floor Terrace Gallery and will include performances by the Student Theater Outreach Program, New Day Dancers, Mount Zion Youth Choir, Sheep of Zion II Dancers, Ensemble Mount Zion Singers, the Albany Housing Authority Youth Choir and the Magic Trunk of Puppets. There also will be booths staffed by community organizations, continuous storybook reading, face painting, carousel rides, Furry Tales and Touchables and book displays.

Shuttle buses will be provided from the John A. Howe branch of the Albany Public Library to the museum. Further information on the shuttle schedule can be obtained by calling the Howe Library.

The festival is being organized by Laura Chodos, a former state regent who is a member of Two Together, an after-school reading program formed through a collaboration between Giffen School and the College of Saint Rose. Other sponsors include the Albany mayor's office, the State Museum, the Times Union, YMCA, Albany Public Library, South End Improvement Corporation, Albany Teachers' Association, Centro-Civico Hispano-Americano, the Albany Housing Authority, Business Council of New York State, Urban Voices and Literacy Volunteers of America.

The New York State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. The museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

The New York State Museum will host four recorder consorts on Tuesdays at noon during March to celebrate National Play the Recorder Month.

The consorts will be held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. on the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace Gallery. Scheduled are: March 8th, Sweetbrier Recorder Consort; March 15th, The Corelli Clash; March 22nd, Platt Hollow Trio and March 29th, The Adirondack Baroque Consort.

Named for its bird-like sound, recorders vary in size and sound from the small supranino to the very large great bass, and are usually played in combination on various parts. Many are familiar with the recorder from elementary school where it is used to teach the basics of reading music because of its simplicity and affordability. The recorder was developed during the Middle Ages and was played throughout Europe. Most popular during the Renaissance and through the Baroque period, it was replaced in the 18th century by the transverse flute, a more versatile instrument. The Germans rediscovered the recorder during the early 20th century, and informal groups began assembling to play recorder music. This movement spread throughout Europe and to the United States where the American Recorder Society was founded in 1939. Some 90 chapters of the American Recorder Society exist in most every state and serve a membership of 3200. The Hudson Mohawk chapter serves the Capitol District and meets twice a month at the Historic Pruyn House in Colonie.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation’s longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY – The New York State Museum will host a series of noontime recorder performances on Fridays at noon during March to celebrate National Play the Recorder Month. 
Scheduled are: March 9 and March 16, The Corelli Clash; March 23, Sweetbrier; and March 30, Crow Hill. The concert music will be from the colonial era. Performances will be on the Museum’s fourth floor Terrace Gallery.
Named for its bird-like sound, recorders vary in size and sound from the small supranino to the very large great bass, and are usually played in combination on various parts. The recorder is often used in elementary school to teach the basics of reading music because of its simplicity and affordability. 
The recorder was developed during the Middle Ages and was played throughout Europe. Most popular during the Renaissance and through the Baroque period, it was replaced in the 18th century by the transverse flute, a more versatile instrument. 
The Germans rediscovered the recorder during the early 20th century, and informal groups began assembling to play recorder music. This movement spread throughout Europe and to the United States where the American Recorder Society was founded in 1939. Some 90 chapters of the American Recorder Society exist in most every state and serve a membership of 3200. The Hudson Mohawk chapter serves the Capitol District and meets twice a month at the Historic Pruyn House in Colonie.
The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
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ALBANY – On Sunday, Dec. 2 holiday shoppers can make a day of it at the Empire State Plaza where they will find the Chocolate Expo & Holiday Gift Market, as well as the 2007 Holiday Tree Lighting and Fireworks Festival.

The free Chocolate Expo will be held at the New York State Museum from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and include a new attraction this year – a Cocoa Café, which will offer light lunch fare and warm beverages for sale. Several of the vendors also will offer free samples and there will be a We Do Fondue chocolate fountain, compliments of Best Cleaners.

The University Jazz Ensemble will present the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Chuck Mangione and others in the Carole F. Huxley Theater. “Old Songs” carolers will perform throughout the Museum, singing holiday tunes.

More than 50 vendors will sell a variety of chocolates, desserts, artisan cheeses, wines, vegan baked goods, organic products, Japanese sauces and dressings, and other specialty food items. Other products will include jewelry, children’s books, homegrown culinary herbs, homemade and organic pet products, natural handmade soaps and bath items, knitted goods, hand painted children’s clothing and ornaments, fair trade housewares and more.

Hudson artist and award-winning illustrator Joan Steiner will be present to sign her Look-Alikes books, which are for sale in the Museum Shop. The books formed the inspiration for the exhibition Look-Alikes: The Amazing World of Joan Steiner, open through March 2, 2008 in the Museum’s Crossroads Gallery.

Also, on Dec. 2, DJ Shawn Gillie will provide music at the Empire State Plaza’s outdoor ice skating rink as part of the 2007 Holiday Tree Lighting and Fireworks Festival at the Plaza. Visitors can also shop at the event’s Holiday Market Place inside on the Plaza’s concourse, where there also will be children’s arts and crafts and storytelling. The Festival is from 2 to 6 p.m.

Further information on the Tree Lighting Festival, or other events sponsored by the state Office of General Services, is available at (518) 473-0559 or at www. empirestateplaza.org.

The sponsors for the Museum’s Chocolate Expo include Price Chopper, Fidelis Care, Verizon, Berkshire Bank, We Do Fondue, Best Cleaners, Fortitech, Hampton Inns & Suites Albany Downtown, TL Metzger & Associates and LogosPrint.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the State Education Department. Located on Madison Avenue, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY -- REPAIR WORK TO AFFECT NYS MUSEUM EXHIBIT SCHEDULE

The New York State Museum's Help is Here exhibition will be closed each day until noon from Monday, May 23rd through Monday, June 6th, with the exception of weekends and Memorial Day (May 30th), so that a new fire detection system can be installed in the gallery.

The exhibition will reopen at noon and remain open until 5 p.m. during that time period. If work proceeds as planned, it is expected that the exhibition will return to its normal opening time at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6th.

The Help is Here exhibition, which will be open through September 11th, chronicles the history of Emergency Medical Services in New York State and the nation. It features 15 historic ambulances, dating from 1911 to the present, historic medical equipment used in the field, as well as photographs and videos. A working police/fire scanner operates around the clock.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation's longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, NY (August 31,2006) – REPRESENT: Selections from The Studio Museum in Harlem opens at the New York State Museum on September 9th, marking the Studio Museum’s first exhibition as part of the Bank of America Great Art Series.

This exhibition, open through Feb. 25, 2007 in the Museum’s West Gallery, is the 16th installment of the Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York State’s leading art museums to the State Museum.

“The State Museum is delighted to welcome the Studio Museum in Harlem to the Bank of America Great Art Series,” said State Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “We are excited about the opportunity to showcase these outstanding selections from the premiere institution for the presentation of artworks created by artists of African descent.”

Organized by Thelma Golden, director and chief curator at the Studio Museum, REPRESENT presents highlights from the Museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition is centered around three distinct, yet interrelated eras in Studio Museum history – the Harlem Renaissance, the politically and socially charged 1960s and 70s and the vibrant contemporary moment. Included are such works as James VanDerZee’s iconic photographs of Harlem, Barkley Hendricks’ direct and unflinching portrait Lawdy Mama (1970) and recent artist-in-residence Adia Millett’s intricate cross-stitches invoking memories of her father.

The Studio Museum’s collection contains over 1,700 works of art, including drawings, paintings, prints, photographs and mixed media works. It includes works created by artists during their residency at the Museum, as well as pieces given to the institution. The Studio Museum has a longstanding commitment to supporting established and emerging black artists.

In conjunction with the REPRESENT exhibition, the State Museum will hold a series of programs on Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Each week, participants will view the works of a different artist,

whose works are on exhibit and explore the style, message and materials represented with a hands-on-art

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making adventure. The programs are scheduled for Oct. 28, Nov. 25th, Dec. 9 and Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, 2007. The program is free for Museum members and $5 for non-members. More information is available at (518) 473-7154.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, First Lady Libby

Pataki, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making this exhibition possible. Support was also provided by Hodgson Russ, LLP, a Buffalo-based law firm with an office in Albany.

The Studio Museum in Harlem, located at 144 West 125th Street, is one of three new institutions to join the expanded Great Art Series. The others are the Brooklyn Museum, which debuted its first exhibition last November, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, which ended its first exhibition Aug. 13th. These institutions join The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which have been part of the Great Art Series since it began in 1999.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – Due to the GHI Work Force Team Challenge Race, and the closing of Madison Avenue and adjacent parking lots on Thursday, May 18th, the New York State Museum has canceled the Museum Series lectures that had been scheduled for that evening and rescheduled them for the following Thursday.

The lectures by Dr. Taury Smith, Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten and Dr. John P. Hart have been rescheduled for Thursday, May 25th. The lectures that had been scheduled for May 25th will instead be held on Thursday, June 1st.

All lectures are free and will take place in the Museum Theater at 7 p.m. Free parking is available next to the Museum.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of

Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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On June 30th the New York State Museum will open a new exhibition that highlights the current research of museum scientists and historians.

The exhibition will be near the entrance to Adirondack Hall in the Research and Collections Gallery, which will be dedicated to rotating exhibitions featuring research work conducted at the museum.

One portion of the new exhibition showcases artifacts and documentation of the archeological excavation of the former Ballston Village, the original seat of Saratoga County between 1796 and 1816. Visitors also will be able to use a computer interactive to peer into the lives of 18th century Albanians researched through the museum's Colonial Albany Social History Project. There also will be a display on Molecular Phylogenetics which will, among other things, show how DNA is extracted from insects. The exhibition also will feature a new geological map for the west-central region of the Adirondacks and research posters.

The Ballston archaeology district excavation was undertaken under the direction of Christina Rieth, who was recently appointed New York State archaeologist. The district was identified by archaeologists prior to the renovation of Middle Line Road in the town of Ballston through the Cultural Resource Survey Program (CRSP), an applied research program of the Museum, which assists state and federal agencies with their historic preservation mandates. A survey in 1997 identified 14 archaeological sites including the county courthouse, tavern, store, print shop, jail, blacksmith shop and several residences. An extensive excavation in 1999 found eating utensils, architectural remains, bottle fragments and items associated with the courthouse. Historic photographs, maps and newspaper articles were also used to reconstruct life in the community. These items will be on display. Ballston Village reverted back to a farm community after a fire destroyed the courthouse in 1816 and it was relocated to Ballston Spa. Local businesses and homeowners soon followed.

Stefan Bielinski, a community historian at the Museum, founded the Colonial Albany Social History Project in 1981. He has worked with a diverse group of students, descendents, community members and professional historians in a cooperative research program dedicated to understanding early American community life as it existed in Albany before 1800. Today, the project lives in a database of over 16,000 people which museum visitors will be able to access via the computer interactive in the new gallery. More information can be found on a website at www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html.

Another portion of the new exhibition showcases modern evolutionary research being conducted at the Museum, highlighting the research of Jason Cryan, a molecular phylogeneticist and entomologist. Dr. Cryan uses comparative DNA sequences to determine evolutionary relationships among groups of insects. His research deals primarily with plant-feeding insects from around the world, many of which are destructive to agricultural crops, yet whose evolutionary histories are essentially unknown. Phylogenetics is an important science because knowledge of a group's evolutionary history is necessary to interpret the geographic distribution, behavior, life history, and ecology of that specific group.

Also on display are selected posters shown by the Museum's scientists at recent conferences. These include posters presenting the results of research on toxic molds, believed to cause health problems, and on Kimberlites, rare rocks formed from very hot liquid generated deep in the earth. Another poster focuses on Bentonites, ancient volcanic ash layers from around 400 million years ago, their preservation in sedimentary rocks, and what they tell us about volcanism in the eastern United States during the Devonian Period. The Fulton Chain-of-Lakes Geology map illustrates the bedrock geology of the west-central region in the Adirondack State Park near Old Forge.

The State Museum, a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education, was founded on a tradition of scientific inquiry. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

ALBANY, NY – On Sunday, July 12 the New York State Museum will present “Theater of Resistance,” an original production featuring vignettes from five plays connected to accomplished African-Americans.

The free program will be presented in the Museum’s Clark Auditorium. Local actors will perform at 3 p.m. in vignettes from Eugene O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones," Howard Sackler's "The Great White Hope, Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls . .," Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and Ossie Davis' rendition of a book by Langston Hughes, "Purlie Victorious."

The production is a tribute to abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet and was inspired by a sermon Garnet delivered in 1843 while serving as a minister at Liberty Presbyterian Church in Troy. “Let your Motto be resistance,” Garnet told the congregation. “Resistance! Resistance! No opposed people have ever secured liberty without resistance.”

“Theater of Resistance” is produced and directed by Donald “The Soul Man” Hyman of Albany, a singer, writer, actor, elder, and teacher. He can be seen in the History Channel movie,

"The Revolution" and the upcoming PBS special, "The American General." Hyman has

performed off-Broadway at Albany Civic Theater, The Palace Theater in Albany and Proctor’s in Schenectady. His current one-man show "SAFE," which he wrote about Buck Leonard, the Negro Leagues’ Homestead Grays player, has been performed around the Capital Region. He recently performed as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in "Voices of Civil Rights," a program for the Legends and Legacies Lecture Series, a monthly series he founded at Albany Public Library. As a singer, he recently did a tribute to Bob Marley at Kwanzaa and for Black History Month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – “Restrepo,” a powerful, nationally acclaimed, award-winning documentary, co-directed by the best-selling author of “War” and “The Perfect Storm,” will debut locally at the New York State Museum July 6 as part of a program featuring the film’s other director and award-winning photographer, as well as one of its main characters.

“Restrepo: One Platoon, One Year, One Valley” will be shown free-of-charge at 6:30 p.m. in the Huxley Theater after making its national debut June 25 in New York City and Los Angeles. On July 9 the film will also be shown at the Spectrum Theater.

Those wishing to attend the Museum screening should call (518) 474-0076. The film is one of a series of programs planned in conjunction with the Museum’s Citizen Soldier: New York’s National Guard in the American Century exhibition, open through March 2011.

Presented by National Geographic Entertainment, “Restrepo” was named the best documentary in January at the Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times called the film an “impressive, even heroic feat of journalism” that should be on the “short shelf of essential 21st-century combat movies.” The current issue of Rolling Stone refers to the film as “explosive, deeply moving and impossible to shake.”

“Restrepo” chronicles 12 months of a deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's remote Korengal Valley, called the “deadliest place on earth” by one of the soldiers in the documentary. Before the outpost was closed 50 American soldiers had died there.

This is an entirely experiential film. There are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 94-minute deployment. The film is rated R and is not suitable for children (those under 17 must be accompanied by a parent).

Following the film’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session featuring Tim Hetherington, the film’s co-director and award-winning photographer, as well as Sgt. Brendan O’Byrne, one of the soldiers who appears in the film. O’Byrne is also the main focus of the first few pages of “War,” the companion book to “Restrepo.” Sebastian Junger, the book’s author and the film’s other director, writes in the book that O’Byrne was “just one soldier out of thirty but seemed to have a knack for putting words to the things that no one else really wanted to talk about. I came to think of him as a stand-in for the entire platoon.” In a June 20 New York Times article on the film O’Byrne said that there are still parts of the film he can’t watch.

“War” will be available for purchase the evening of the screening and Hetherington will sign event post cards. Hetherington is an acclaimed photographer and filmmaker who has reported on conflict for over 10 years. He broke his ankle when he fell down the mountain in the Korengal Valley. Hetherington is the recipient of four World Press Photo prizes, including World Press Photo of the Year (2008) and an Alfred I. duPont Broadcast Award (2009) for his work in Afghanistan. A native of the UK, he is based in New York and is a contributing photographer for “Vanity Fair” magazine. Hetherington's book about the soldiers will be published in October.

From May 2007 to July 2008, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade was stationed in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers of the Second Platoon built and manned the remote and strategic outpost that they named “Restrepo,” in honor of their medic, PFC Juan Restrepo, who was killed in action. In the past five years the Korengal Valley – a rugged valley six miles long near the border with Pakistan – has become an epicenter of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. It was considered to be a crucial relay point for Taliban fighters moving from Pakistan toward Kabul, and several top Al Qaeda leaders were thought to have used it as a base of operations.

Starting in June 2007, Hetherington and Junger dug in with the men of the Second Platoon, making 10 trips to the Korengal Valley on assignment for “Vanity Fair” magazine and ABC News. By the end of the deployment, Hetherington and Junger had shot a total of 150 hours of combat, boredom, humor, terror, and daily life at the outpost. For more information on the film visit http://www.restrepothemovie.com/#/story. 

HealthNet Federal, Southwest Airlines, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA), The Soldiers Project and Lockheed Martin are great supporters of National Geographic, and are helping to underwrite screenings of “Restrepo.”

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further

information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – As part of the celebration of the 2009 Hudson-Champlain Quadricentennial celebration, the New York State Office of Cultural Education (OCE) will present at the New York State Museum the exhibition “1609,” which will re-examine Henry Hudson’s voyage, the myths that surround it, and explore the legacies of Hudson’s unexpected discovery.

The State Museum, State Archives, State Library and State Office of Educational Broadcasting, which make up OCE, are collaborating on the “1609” exhibition. It is scheduled to be open July 3, 2009 until March 7, 2010 in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall.

The “1609” exhibition is presented in four parts. The first section focuses on what life was like for both the Dutch and Native Peoples of New York before 1609 and the events of that year. The visitor will then look at the myths that Hudson planned to come here, and that Native Americans greeted him and his crew with joy and awe. The exhibition will attempt to dispel those myths and explore with the visitor what is known about Hudson and the 1609 voyage and the Native American response. The third section confronts the myths relating to the short-term impact of the voyage – the consequences for the Dutch and the Native Americans. Finally, the visitor will be able to examine the long-term legacy of the Native Americans and Dutch, and how they affected subsequent historical events and American culture today.

Highlighting the important role that the Hudson River played in Hudson’s discovery and in the everyday lives of the Native Americans he encountered, visitors entering the gallery will see the illusion of running water. An outline of the Halve Maen (Half Moon) that carried Hudson to the new world, and fast facts about the ship, will be stenciled onto the gallery floor. The exhibition will also feature many historic drawings, maps and paintings, including some by Capital District expert historical artist L.F. Tantillo.

There will be many touchable objects and a reading area to engage the youngest visitors. Artifacts on display will include an elaborately decorated c. 1700 “Armada Chest” or strongbox, a classic type of chest or portable safe similar to what Henry Hudson most likely had in his quarters on the Half Moon; a dugout canoe recovered from Glass Lake in Rensselaer County similar to those used by Native Americans in the 17th century; a bronze cannon cast for the Dutch West India Company (1604-1661) used at or near Fort Orange and a stained glass window bearing the Coat of Arms of “Jan Baptist van Renssilaer,” patron of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in the 1650s. A large 1611 etching of the Port of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, courtesy of the Amsterdam Municipal Archives, also will hang in the gallery.

Many of the maps and other 17th-century Dutch colonial documents in the exhibition are from the collections of the New York State Library and the State Archives and will be located in a separate room where lighting is carefully controlled. The New Netherland Project, a program of the State Library, has been working since 1974 to translate and publish these archival records.

Archaeologist James Bradley, an expert on Native Americans, and Russell Shorto, an authority on colonial Dutch history, have written text for the exhibition. Bradley is the author of “Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region 1600-1664,” and a guest curator for portions of the exhibition. Shorto, who resides in the Netherlands, authored “The Island at the Center of

the World,” the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America.

Steven Comer, a Mohican Native American living within the original territory of the Mohican people, has provided cultural information and consulting for the project.

The Museum also is celebrating the Dutch influence on Albany and New York State with a trip to Holland and Belgium. This adventure will allow participants to experience these countries and appreciate their effect on Albany’s heritage and architecture. The trip is September 24 through October 1, 2009 and priced at $2,127 per person, double occupancy. Museum members receive a discount of $50. This trip includes a week-long stay in a four-star hotel located in the Hague, Holland’s government capitol. The price includes airfare, transfers, six nights accommodation, breakfast everyday except arrival, three dinners, private luxury coach, and local guides in Amsterdam, Bruges, and Delft. Also included are the entrance fees for windmills, a Delftware factory, New Church Delft, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, canal boat rides, and Aalsmeer Flower Auction. There is one free day with an optional trip to Paris, France. For more information or to register call Susan at (518) 862-1810 Monday through Friday.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – The next exhibition in the Bank of America’s Great Art Series -- Rockwell Kent: This is My Own – opens at the New York State Museum on November 22.

On view through May 17, 2009 in the Museum’s West Gallery, the exhibition is the 20th installment of the Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings works from New York State’s leading art museums and collections to the State Museum. This exhibition will feature works from the collection of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, the most complete and balanced collection of Kent’s work in the United States. The collection was established by a gift and bequest from Kent’s wife, Sally Kent Gorton. This exhibition is curated by Cecilia M. Esposito, director of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum.

"We at Plattsburgh, and I as a Regent, are delighted to share the life work of Rockwell Kent with visitors to the New York State Museum from across the state and the nation,” said James Dawson, member of the State Board of Regents. “This powerful and unique exhibition will give visitors an opportunity to engage with, and understand, the life and artistic contributions of Rockwell Kent to American art. As a faculty member at the State University of Plattsburgh, I have been familiar with the Kent Collection for decades. So, I am delighted to see that others in the state and nation will have this same profound opportunity to share in Kent's incredible artistic talent.”

A critically acclaimed artist who provided the illustrations for such classics as “Moby Dick” and the “Canterbury Tales,” Kent succeeded in multiple endeavors during his lifetime. He was a painter, muralist, illustrator, printmaker, book designer, graphic artist, architect, builder, writer and editor, lecturer, navigator, world traveler and political and social activist.

Kent once said that “art is no more than the shadow cast by a man’s own stature.” This exhibition is unique in the breadth of materials on display, including hundreds of items that chronicle Kent’s life and work, reflecting remarkable personal experiences and a deep sense of moral and political principle. On display are paintings, drawings, prints, books, bookplates, photographs, dinnerware, advertising art and more. “Rockwell Kent,” a documentary produced by Frederick Lewis, and the book, “Rockwell Kent: The Art of the Bookplate” will be for sale in the Museum Shop.

Born in Tarrytown in 1882, Kent experienced a comfortable, upper middle-class lifestyle until the sudden death of his father in 1887. As a young boy he developed a resilience and remarkable work ethic that was evident in all of his future endeavors.

From 1900 through 1902, while studying architecture at Columbia University in New York City, Kent attended painter William Merritt Chase’s summer school for art at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island. He changed his studies to painting and continued classes with Chase in New York. He spent the summer of 1903 with artist Abbott H. Thayer in New Hampshire. Bolstered by the sale of two paintings he quit Columbia and enrolled in the New York School of Art, where he was instructed by Robert Henri, the leader of what is now known as the “Ashcan School.”

Kent achieved both critical and financial success as an artist during the 1920s and 1930s. He became well-known for his book illustrations, bookplates and commercial work. Private collectors and major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired his paintings and prints.

Between 1918 and 1935, Kent traveled to remote parts of the world, often staying for long periods of time to learn about the people who lived there and to express and record his experiences through his paintings and books.

In 1915, during World War I, he was ordered to leave Newfoundland over fears that he was a German spy. While in Newfoundland he painted one of his major works, “House of Dread.” In Alaska, as in other countries he visited, Kent demonstrated his building skills, renovating an abandoned goat shed and turning it into a comfortable home. “Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska” chronicled his adventures there. He also traveled to Tierra del Fuego, where he wrote “Voyaging” about his dangerous travels through the most exposed islands of the archipelago. “N by E” was about another hair-raising adventure -- an ill-fated cruise he took to Greenland in 1929. He returned to Greenland in 1931 where he wrote “Salamina,” named in honor of his housekeeper and mistress. Kent also designed dinnerware by the same name. 
Kent purchased a dairy farm in the Adirondacks, outside of the village of Au Sable Forks, in 1927 and named it Asgaard, meaning “home of the gods.” It served as his retreat for the rest of his life.

From 1912 to 1968, Kent practiced the time-honored art of the bookplate, creating more than 185 custom-designed bookplates in response to mail orders that came his way, including one for Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.. He also pursued wood engraving, a passion that rivaled his great love for painting.

Kent painted several major murals during the 1930s and 40s. His designs for the 1939 Christmas Seals campaign were used on billboards, stamps and posters. During this time, Kent also produced political art, becoming very active in social and political issues as a member of the Socialist Party he had joined in 1908. In 1953, he was summoned to appear before a subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Senator

Joseph McCarthy, to answer questions about his membership in the Communist Party. From 1957 to 1960, three major exhibitions of Kent’s work were held in the Soviet Union, and in 1960 he gave the country 80 canvases and 800 drawings and prints. He traveled to Moscow in 1967 to accept the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples.

One of Kent’s last lucrative commercial contracts was with General Electric (GE). His painting of a solitary farmhouse on a winter’s night was reproduced in GE’s 1946 calendar and proved so popular that he was asked to provide another for the following year. In January 1946, Kent walked a picket line at GE in Schenectady at the request of the striking workers there. GE officials were not pleased and tried to cancel Kent’s contract but reneged after he threatened a lawsuit.

Kent died at the age of 88 and is buried at Asgaard. His gravestone bears the title of his first autobiography “This is My Own,” a line taken from “Native Land,” a poem by Walter Scott.

On February 14, from 1 to 3 p.m., the Museum will sponsor “ARTventures,” a program planned to complement the Kent exhibition. During a hands-on, art-making experience with instructor Peggy Steinbach, participants will visit the exhibition and then create their own interpretations in paint. Pre-registration is suggested. Call 518-473-7154 or e-mail psteinba@mail.nysed.gov. The program is limited to 15 participants. It is free for Museum members and $5 for non-members.

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Bank of America, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly for making the Kent exhibition possible. Additional support is provided by The Times Union, WRGB (CBS 6) and Potratz Partners Advertising.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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On January 25th, the New York State Museum opens an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Paul Robeson, an African-American whose extraordinary talents helped shape the tumultuous course of 20th century America.

Open through March 23 in the Photography Gallery, Paul Robeson: Spirit of a Culture presents and interprets Robeson's multifaceted contributions to America and the world through his embodiment of the universal traits of African-American culture. The exhibition showcases approximately 200 photographs, documents, and objects offering a comprehensive view of all aspects of Robeson's life. This includes his athletic prowess, his theatrical, cinematic and musical triumphs, his participation in the civil rights and labor movements, his support of U.S. and Allied efforts in World War II and his personal life with his family and in his church.

Born the son of a former slave, Robeson was a Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers with a law degree from Columbia, and was the only African-American selected for special honors in 1972 as a charter member of the National Theater Hall of Fame. His character infused and informed the popular culture of the 1930s and 1940s. As a top concert artist, he helped to establish the Negro Spiritual and multinational folk songs as accepted art forms. A radio and recording artist, Robeson was the first African-American to star in non-stereotypical roles in feature films.

The exhibition was organized by the Paul Robeson Foundation, New York and is circulated by the Council for Creative Projects in Lee, Mass. The exhibition's core material comes from the collections of Paul Robeson and his wife, Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson, now owned by their son, Paul Robeson Jr. Much of the exhibition's content was originally organized in 1998 to commemorate the centenary of Robeson's birth and this national exhibition tour presents it to the public for the first time.

Many of the era's greatest photographers are represented in the exhibition including Edward Steichen, Yousuf Karsh, Carl Van Vechten, Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Austin Hansen and Morgan and Marvin Smith. Robeson is shown in his many film and stage roles, in concert and at a variety of public events. Candid images made throughout his lifetime reveal the private person behind the artist and the public figure.

Rare photographs portray Robeson's spectacular career as an intercollegiate athlete. He won 14 varsity letters, was twice named All-American by legendary Walter Camp and was elected to the National Collegiate Hall of Fame. Also included are diary entries, letters, correspondence with world figures, sheet music and books. He is shown in the company of W.E.B. DuBois, Eugene O'Neill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nikita Kruschev, Albert Einstein, Nehru and many other world leaders. Audio and video selections highlighting Robeson's stage career and work in human rights are also included in the exhibition.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

- ICM Artists, LTD. presents the Grammy award-winning a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock in concert on Friday, October 29th at the New York State Museum.

The concert, which begins at 8 p.m. in the Clark Auditorium, is being held in conjunction with three new Museum exhibitions - The Art of African Women: Empowering Traditions; Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging and Passing the Legacy: Reflections of Our Elders. A pre-concert reception, celebrating the opening of the exhibitions, will be held at the Museum at 6 p.m. for advance concert ticket holders and Museum members. The photographers whose works are showcased in the exhibitions - Margaret Courtney Clarke (Art of African Women), Chester Higgins (Elder Grace) and J. El-Wise Noisette (Passing the Legacy) -- are expected to attend the reception.

The internationally renowned group captures the complex sounds of blues, spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, hip-hop, ancient lullabies and jazz improvisation. Sweet Honey's collective voice, occasionally accompanied by hand percussion instruments, produces a sound filled with soulful harmonies and intricate rhythms. Their songs often ring with social and political commentary.

Founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973 at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company, Sweet Honey has roots in the sacred music of the black church. Reagon was inspired by a religious parable her father passed on about a land so rich that honey flowed from the rocks. The image of black women strong as a rock and sweet as honey seemed appropriate. Reagon retired from performing with the group earlier this year and the ensemble became a sextet with the addition of founding member Louise Robinson and Arnae¢, who has worked as a substitute in the group since 1994.

Sweet Honey's newest song "Trust," written by founding member Carol Maillard, is being sold in limited editions at concerts this fall and will be available at the State Museum concert. The ensemble released its 30th year anniversary album, "The Women Gather" in 2003, during a whirlwind, yearlong celebration, which included performances in 13 cities across the U.S. and six cities in England and Scotland. In the fall of 2003, the Smithsonian honored Sweet Honey by requesting a donation of artifacts from the group for the Smithsonian's permanent Performing Arts collection.

On the horizon this year is a PBS documentary on the ensemble, "A Song for Everyone," produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson.

Concert tickets are for sale in the Museum lobby Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or can be obtained by calling (518) 408-1033. Advance tickets, which include admission to the pre-concert reception, are $36 for members and $40 for non-members. Tickets are $44 at the door.

The concert is interpreted in sign language. Assisted listening devices are also available in the Clark Auditorium.

Providing support for this concert are the Capital District Physician's Health Plan, 104.9 LOVE FM, The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center and Bud's Florist and Greenhouses.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation's longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the 15th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Museum’s 4th floor Terrace Gallery, the show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the museum’s gem and mineral collections. Among recent acquisitions are several new collections purchased with funds from last year’s show, including the New York State portion of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences collection, one of the oldest mineral collections in America.

The show will feature over 20 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be lectures, children’s activities and guided exhibition tours.

Available for sale at the Museum's publications booth will be publications produced by the New York State Museum’s Research and Collections Division documenting research in natural and human history in New York. Materials on display will include data in geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

On Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, Dr. David Bailey, associate professor of Geology at Hamilton College, will lecture on “Asbestos: Myth and Reality.”

Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of geology at the New York State Museum, will lecture Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater on “Minerals from the Ore Deposits of New York State.”

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
• A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the Museum’s senior cartographer, about map-making processes and methods for producing the State Museum’s new geologic quadrangle map.
• Guided tours of the Minerals of New York gallery highlighting recent acquisitions, by Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager, both Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

There is a general admission price of $6 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.

The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geological staff, and has become one of the Museum's most popular annual events.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – As fishers become more numerous throughout the Northeast, including suburban areas, New York State Museum biologists have developed a technique to count the animals using their unique fingerprints.
Fingerprints left behind at special tracking-boxes allow field biologists to identify which individual fisher had come in for the bait and, therefore, count the exact number of animals using an area. 
State Museum scientists teamed with fingerprint experts at the New York State Department of Criminal Justice (DCJS) to develop this method, which is published in the May issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management. Using footprints to count fishers is a simple, inexpensive method compared to alternatives such as DNA fingerprinting 
Fisher prints differ from those in humans because they are made up of patterns of dots rather than ridges, so standard criminology software did not work. "We tried submitting fisher prints to the state's fingerprint database but it didn't pair up the prints well" says Richard Higgins, retired chief of the DCJS Bureau of Criminal Identification. "But looking at them side-by-side it was obvious when you had a match."
Fishers, a member of the weasel family, are the only Carnivore known to have fingerprints, which are also known from primates and koalas. Other species may also have unique patterns in their tracks that would help in counting their numbers in the wild.
"The few porcupine and opossum tracks we got had incredible patterns and will probably turn out to be unique with more study." says Dr. Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the State Museum, who co-authored the Journal article, along with Higgins and others.
Museum scientists surveyed fishers from 2000-2002 as part of a carnivore survey across 54 sites in the Adirondack region of Northern New York. Fishers were the second most commonly detected carnivore species, behind coyotes. 
"Our study suggests fisher populations are healthy throughout most of Northern New York," said Kays. "Fisher populations are rising in most of the Northeastern United States, showing that wildlife will 
reclaim their turf if forests are allowed to recover." 
Fishers were nearly driven to extinction in the state by deforestation and over-trapping before receiving protection in the 1930s. This led to a slow recovery and limited trapping was permitted again in the 1970s. Their recent population boom appears to have begun in the 1990s
Fishers spread south out of the Adirondacks and Vermont and into the Hudson Valley. They are also spreading westward, with today’s leading edge around Syracuse. Fishers were first recorded in the suburbs of Albany and Boston in the last six years.
This past February a Fisher made its presence known near Schenectady when it bit a woman as she was taking out her trash in Glenville. It also attempted to attack a neighbor and his dog the day before. The fisher was later killed and tested positive for rabies. It was wearing a radio collar placed by State Museum scientists in 2002 when it was captured in the Albany Pine Bush.
Fishers are normally afraid of humans and rarely attack. They can contract rabies from raccoons, the most common carriers of rabies in the state, although this happens very rarely. Fishers eat mostly rabbits and other small mammals and are one of the only predators to regularly hunt porcupines. 
As the State Museum’s curator of mammals, Kays studies carnivores in Albany’s Pine Bush and the Adirondacks. An Albany resident, Kays received his undergraduate degree in biology at Cornell University before earning his doctorate in zoology at the University of Tennessee. 
The other co-authors of the Journal study are Mike Tymeson, DCJS; Carl J. Herzog, state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany; Dr. Justina C. Ray, Wildlife Conservation Society in Toronto, Canada; Dr. Matthew E. Gompper, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO and Dr. William J. Zielinski United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Redwood Sciences Laboratory in Arcata, CA. 
The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.
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ALBANY, NY – Children will have the chance to dig for minerals while adults shop for their own treasures at the “16th Annual James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale,” to be held Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22 at the New York State Museum.

Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 4th floor Terrace Gallery, the show is part of the Museum’s annual fundraising weekend, the only time admission is charged at the Museum. Proceeds will help fund new acquisitions for the museum’s gem and mineral collections.

There is a general admission price of $6 per person, which also admits visitors to the “New York in Bloom” event the same weekend. There is no charge for children 12 and under if accompanied by an adult. Tickets may be purchased at the door and there is limited free parking.

The show will feature over 20 vendors, who will display and sell gems, jewelry, minerals, fossils, books, videos, lapidary equipment and supplies, stone carvings, bookends and silver and goldsmithing tools. There also will be lectures, children’s activities and guided exhibition tours.

Publications, produced by the Museum’s Research and Collections staff, documenting research in New York’s natural and human history, will also be for sale. Materials on display will include information on geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and history.

On Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater, Dr. David Bailey, associate professor of geology at Hamilton College, will lecture on “Minerals of the Lockport Group of Central and Western New York”.

Dr. Charles Merguerian, professor of geology at Hofstra University, will lecture Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Huxley Theater on “Ancient Till Discovered at the World Trade Center Site”

Other activities over the weekend will include:

• A mineral dig for children, held throughout the weekend, hosted by the Capital District Mineral Club.
• A continuous presentation by John Skiba, the Museum’s senior cartographer, about map-making processes and methods for producing the State Museum’s new geologic quadrangle map.
• Guided tours on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p. m. of the Minerals of New York gallery highlighting recent acquisitions by Michael Hawkins, the Museum’s mineralogy collections manager. Participants will meet in the Museum lobby.

The “Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show” was initiated by the late James Campbell, a member of the Museum’s geological staff, and has become one of the Museum's most well-attended annual events.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY -- The November issue of National Geographic magazine reports on the work of a New York State Museum scientist who has been testing groundbreaking new animal-tracking technology that opens up dramatic new opportunities for studying interactions between mammals and other species.

Roland Kays, the State Museum’s curator of mammals, has been testing the Automated Radio Telemetry System (ARTS) in Panama, along with Martin Wikelski of Princeton University. Their findings are reported in a 12-page full-color photo spread in National Geographic and also appear on the magazine’s website.

Kays and Wikelski have been studying the interactions between the ocelots of Panama’s Barro Colorado Island (BCI) and the agouti, a seven-pound rodent that is the ocelot’s favorite prey.

With funding from the National Science Foundation and the Levinson Family Foundation, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute installed the system on BCI, where it has operated a research station for 82 years.

ARTS consists of seven permanent radio towers positioned across the island that pick up and relay signals to computers that constantly monitor dozens of animals. With traditional wildlife radio telemetry, several researchers must move around with receivers to determine the position of an animal that had been previously trapped and collared with a receiver. Researchers have also used Global Positioning Systems but satellite signals can be blocked where there is dense cover, such as in rain forests. Also, many animals are too small to carry the tracking equipment needed.

Kays says the new technology, which he hopes to begin testing in the Albany area this fall or winter, allows researchers to “gather more data in one week than in years of traditional telemetry.”

Researchers can scan the computer to check the daily activities of the animals they are studying, and check computer graphics to learn when they are active. ARTS constantly maps the locations of the ocelots and other animals and this becomes especially important because it allows researchers to be on the scene quickly in the rare instance when two collared animals meet and interact.

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“Rarely, will you see a predator kill its prey,” says Kays. This technology allows researchers to be on the scene quickly enough to study rare but important events that would have escaped them in the past.

Kays also has been using the new technology to track the seeds of trees that are at least walnut sized. He has tracked palm tree seeds that agutes bury and then dig up and move. His studies indicate that in some instances the seeds are moved much farther than traditional methods would have tracked them.

Kays hopes to start testing the new technology in Albany’s Pine Bush, using the design set up in Panama. He will check to see how the equipment operates in a more populated area where there could be radio interference from other sources. He expects his first study subjects will be squirrels and mice.

The National Science Foundation will be looking at the local studies closely to determine the future potential for deploying the new technology across the country.

As the State Museum’s curator of mammals, Kays studies the distribution and taxonomy of carnivores in Albany’s Pine Bush and the Adirondacks. He also curated an exhibition at the Museum, open through January 29th -- Mammals Revealed: Discovery and Documentation of Secretive Creatures. The exhibition shows how artists transformed scientific information into detailed works of art appearing in the field guide, Mammals of North America by Dr. Kays and Don E. Wilson, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

An Albany resident, Kays received his undergraduate degree in biology at Cornell University before earning his doctorate in zoology at the University of Tennessee studying rain forest carnivores in Panama.

Further information and a video on Kay’s research in Panama can be found at http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/feature4/index.html.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of

Education, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education.

Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY – A New York State Museum scientist has co-authored an innovative study on zoo animals across America that shows for the first time that cold temperatures help lions grow their manes long and thick – and more appealing to potential mates.

Dr. Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the State Museum, was the co-author of the study that appeared on the cover of the April issue of the Journal of Mammology. The study found that up to one-half of the length and density of a zoo lion’s mane can be attributed to temperature, rather than nutrition, social factors, individual history or genes.

Like a buck’s antlers or a peacock’s tail feathers, the lion’s mane primarily servers to attract females and intimidate male competitors. But it comes with a cost. In addition to retaining heat, a full mane takes energy to grow and maintain, gives away location to prey, makes maneuvering through bramble difficult and harbors parasites.

“While a big mane impresses everybody, even a small mane can be imposing in hot dry climates, where the costs of overheating are great and most male lions have little or no mane. This is the case in Tsavo, Kenya where most lions are maneless,” said Dr. Bruce D. Patterson, the MacArthur curator of mammals at The Field Museum in Chicago, Ill. And the lead author of the research.

Patterson, Kays and other colleagues began studying manes due to their research on the infamous maneless Tsavo lions. Dr. Patterson is the author of The Lions of Tsavo (McGraw Hill, 2004), which tells the story of the man-eaters. At the end of the 19h century, two Tsavo lions set upon railway crews and ate as many as 135 people (by some accounts) before they were finally hunted down and killed.

The new study examined mane variation for 19 lions in 17 zoos across the United States, from as far north as Chicago to as far south as Houston. The zoos included in the study are located in cities that span 12 degrees of latitude or more than 2,000 miles: Alexandria, La.; Coal Valley, Ill.; Dallas; Des Moines, Iowa; Houston; Lufkin, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; Monroe, La.; New Orleans; Oakland, Calif.; Peoria, Ill.; Sacramento, Calif.; Salina, Kan; St. Louis; Topeka, Kan.; Tyler, Texas; and Vallejo, Calif.

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Based on the results of this study, scientists now know that lion manes can vary tremendously due to local climate. Therefore, taxonomists may be obliged to reanalyze the lion family tree. Over the years, scientists have ascribed lions to various species and subspecies based largely on their outward appearance, especially the length and density of their manes.

Lions once roamed over most of the world but are now limited to small parts of Africa and India. Only about 25,000 lions live in the wild today, down from more than 100,000 only 25 years ago. Their numbers have been decimated by human encroachment on their habitats and by conflicts with people.

"The large-maned lion has always been an important symbol to our culture," said Kays. "We hope they can survive outside of cold-weather zoos."

As the State Museum’s curator of mammals, Kays studies the distribution and taxonomy of carnivores in Albany’s Pine Bush and the Adirondacks. Kays also has done other research on the Tsavo lions in Kenya as part of a team supported by the National Geographic Society and Earthwatch. An Albany resident, Kays received his undergraduate degree in biology at Cornell University before earning his doctorate in zoology at the University of Tennessee.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Department of Education, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – “Birds, Bats & Butterflies” is the theme of the New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend on May 17 and 18.

The Family Fun Weekend takes place from 1 – 4 p.m. both days. Activities, which are free of charge, are held on the Museum’s first floor.

On Sunday only, at 2 p.m., wildlife lecturer and author Rusty Johnson will present birds of prey and reptiles from around the world. He will discuss the relationship between predator and prey and the need to preserve animal habitats. Johnson, a Hudson Valley resident, monitors endangered species around the world and leads ecotours in the Peruvian Amazon. He has assisted Jim Fowler of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” and appeared on “The Today Show” and on “Late Night with David Letterman.”

Both afternoons, Family Fun participants can also make and decorate a craft, work at the coloring table and take home a packet of activities and games.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum will “Celebrate Public Health” with a series of interactive programs designed to educate, entertain and engage students during school break week December 27-30.

Participants will have the opportunity to sketch, paint, play interactive videos, watch a skit, learn exercises, do arts and crafts projects and much more. Presenters will include Drama Kids International, the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the Environmental Clearinghouse, the Capital District YMCA, Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, WMHT, the New York State Office of Mental Health, Best Buy and Museum staff.

All activities are free and will be held Monday through Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. (unless otherwise indicated). Throughout the week, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Museum visitors can drop off food or used coats in receptacles in the Museum lobby to help those in need. The Museum has partnered with Food Pantries for the Capital District to collect canned, boxed and jarred food, as well as paper and toiletry products. Clean, gently used coats and jackets will be donated to the Capital City Rescue Mission.

Also, Monday through Thursday, visitors can join staff from Best Buy in the Huxley Theater to get their recommended amount of physical activity by playing interactive video games on a giant screen.

“Be Aware – Take Care” is the theme of Monday’s program. Drama Kids International will present a short skit at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. in Adirondack Hall to educate young people about the importance of eating right and being active. Drama Kids International is an after-school drama program that works to develop speaking skills and confidence in children, ages 3-13. Also on Monday visitors can build a model of a neural network in Adirondack Hall and make a poster about a public health issue in Bird Hall.

On Tuesday “Cellular Celebration” is the theme. In Bird Hall the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) will use a life-sized human torso and medical equipment to demonstrate current and future applications of nanotechnology in medical practice. Visitors to Adirondack Hall can also design a painting using the magnified images of common germs and make a bracelet and match the beads to the DNA code from the human heart gene.

Wednesday’s programs focus on “Healthy Environment, Healthy Kids.” In Adirondack Hall arts and crafts projects and puzzles will be used to provide tips on eating fish from the Hudson River. Visitors to Bird Hall can view bedbugs and ticks under a microscope and learn how to protect themselves from these tiny parasites. They also will be taught how to identify, avoid and treat poison ivy in Bird Hall.

“Eat Smart, Play Smart, Strong Heart” is the theme inspiring Thursday’s programs. In Adirondack Hall, visitors can try “indoor snowshoeing,” learn exercises to keep them strong and create a self-portrait. They also can do hands-on activities and view clips from Sesame Street about nutrition in the Sesame Street exhibit.

Further information on these events is available at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/calendar/

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further

information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – New horrors and some familiar frights will greet those who dare to enter the “Haunted Museum of Un-Natural History” opening on October 18th for its seventh season at the New York State Museum.

The “Haunted Museum” will open for two weekends, October 18 and 19; Oct. 25 and 26, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and on Halloween night, Friday, Oct. 31, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will be located in Exhibition Hall, on the Museum’s first floor.

The “Monster Mash & Bash” will provide more light-hearted fun for younger children, aged 10 and under. It will be held in the Student Center Oct. 18 and 19 and 25 and 26, from noon to 4 p.m. Children and their families are invited to dress for a 1 p.m. costume parade around the Museum, which begins in the Museum lobby. The “Monster Mash & Bash” will feature face-painting and Halloween crafts. There will be no Bash on Halloween night.

The “Haunted Museum” features “The Meat Locker,” “Die Laughing” and other theme-based rooms, which combine objects from the Museum’s collections with eery animal specimens, and frightening illusions. “Scare- acters” leap out of nowhere and inanimate objects suddenly seem to move and follow frightened visitors.

Visitors are advised that the intense lighting, sounds and special effects are not for everyone and definitely not suitable for children under 10. Anyone under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. “Haunted Museum”visitors are asked not to wear costumes, but costumes are encouraged for the “Monster Mash & Bash.”

Proceeds from both events will benefit the Museum’s after-school programs for Albany city youth.Admission to the “Haunted Museum” is $7. The event is free on Halloween night, courtesy of National Grid, the presenting sponsor. Monster Mash admission is $2. The Halloween events are a significant source of funding for the Museum’s youth programs, making it possible for many children to attendeducational after-school programs tuition-free or at reduced cost. Now, many of the children involved in the Discovery Squad teen program and the Time Tunnel summer camp, are taking an active role in planning and building the “Haunted Museum.”

“I have kids sending me e-mail in August to ask when we’ll be starting. They talk about it year round,”said Truemaster Trimingham, a Museum educator and horror movie fan who is the “Haunted Museum”mastermind. “They want to know, ‘When can we start to build? When can we come in?’ It wasn’t my intention, but it has really taken off. You have kids coming from the suburbs, and from here in the city, with one purpose in mind -- to scare the pants off of people.” A few of the students have even contacted Trimingham from out-of-town colleges to find out when they can come in to help.

By mid-September, Mikenna Greenough, a Columbia High School junior, had started helping Trimingham pull together the materials to begin work on the “Haunted Museum.” This year, at her suggestion, characters will wear ghoulish and disfiguring makeup for the first time, with the help ofdesigns Greenough has derived from horror movies.

“I advertise it everywhere. My ‘My Space’ page has ‘Haunted Museum of Un-Natural History’ on it. I pass out flyers in my school,” said Greenough, who wears a t-shirt promoting the event and has recruited friends to volunteer.

She has made close friends from throughout the region through her time at the Museum, first as a participant in Time Tunnel and, later, as a junior counselor. Taking part in the “Haunted Museum” has helped her conquer her shyness. “Initially I said, ‘I’m in a mask, nobody knows it’s me.’ But it turned out to be a blast.”

Another enthusiast, Derek Hines, has devoted full weekends, and even a few overnights, to help build the “Haunted Museum.” He plans to help this year, even though he is now 18, and has graduated from Albany High School and is no longer part of the Discovery Squad.

Hines attended the Museum’s after-school programs throughout his youth and had a job with the Discovery Squad program in high school. He believes that his involvement helped keep him off of the streets and in school. He helps now as much to give back to the Museum as for the fun.

“This isn’t just a haunted house,’’ he said. “It’s a haunted house with a cause. “

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York StateEducation Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about the programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 orvisiting the museum Web site at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/programs/halloween.

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ALBANY, NY – On July 5-6 the public is invited to tour an active archaeological dig in Schoharie County and see some of the 200,000 artifacts that have been uncovered at the prehistoric site, which dates to 2000 B.C.

The New York State Museum and the University at Albany’s Anthropology Department will host the 7th annual open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days at the Pethick site on Smith Road, off of Route 7/30A in the Village of Central Bridge. Cooking hearths, storage pits and other food processing areas have been found at the site. The majority of the artifacts date to the Late Woodland period (900-1500 A.D.) and Early Woodland period (1000 B.C.- 1 A.D.) but additional evidence suggests that the location has been occupied frequently dating back to at least 2000 B.C.

State Archaeologist Dr. Christina Rieth of the New York State Museum and Dr. Sean Rafferty, associate professor of Anthropology at the University at Albany, will discuss New York State Archaeology and the relationship of the Pethick site to other nearby sites in the Schoharie Valley, as well as to prior excavations conducted by archaeologists nearby. They also will discuss how artifacts found at this site are similar to or different from other sites of similar age and how landscape features, such as the Schoharie Creek, have played an important role in the occupation of the site.

Students from the University at Albany’s Anthropology Department will provide tours of the site and active excavation areas, but visitors are welcome to explore at their own pace and stay as long as they would like.

The privately-owned site is in its eighth season of excavation and is the home of an eight-week Archaeology field school for both undergraduate and graduate students. As part of the field school, students preserve and catalogue the artifacts, which will ultimately become part of the Museum’s collections.

The State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free, Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – “Today’s Girls Scouts” will be the theme of the New York State Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend, June 21 and 22.

The Family Fun Weekend takes place from 1- 4 p.m. both days. Activities, which are free of charge, are held on the Museum’s first floor.

The events will help Girl Scout members complete most requirements for their “Sky Search” and “Rocks Rock” badges. But everyone is welcome to participate and learn more about scouting.

On Saturday and Sunday, visitors may see a sky show in the Museum’s inflatable Star Lab, located in the Huxley Theater. The Star Lab will display the stars of the spring and summer constellations. The show is limited to 30 people, who must obtain a free ticket at the information desk in the lobby. Also Saturday, the Girl Scout Council of Northeastern New York will be available to offer information about joining the organization and becoming a volunteer.

Both afternoons, visitors can design a box that can be used to collect rocks and other items. There will be a scavenger hunt in the Gem and Mineral Gallery, with prizes awarded to winners.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities on the third weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum

Web site at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/calendar/.

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ALBANY, NY – A cooperative agreement between the New York State Museum and the South Street Seaport Museum provides for the continued preservation and accessibility of 2 million New York City artifacts and gives the State Museum the largest archaeological collection from the Dutch colony of New Netherland.

The South Street Seaport Museum will transfer to the State Museum title to a collection of artifacts representing more than 300 years of Manhattan history -- including the Dutch New Amsterdam, English colonial and early American Republic periods. The collection will help to fill a void in the State Museum’s archaeology collection of over 2 million artifacts that span the entire period of human occupation in New York State. Previously, New York City was underrepresented in the collection that includes artifacts from every county in the state.

“This collection will now be under the umbrella of the University of the State of New York and its institutions – the State Museum, Library and Archives – which work together to document and preserve New York’s history,” said Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents Robert M. Bennett. “The collection fills a significant gap and provides the basis for a broader, more complete interpretation of this period of the state’s history.”

“These important artifacts will enrich and enlarge the valued collections that already exist on New Netherland at the State Museum, Library and Archives, and provide a treasure trove of resources in one location at the Cultural Education Center (CEC),” said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills. “Scientists and students will have access to this collection but it also will be used for public exhibitions and programs and be available for loan to other cultural institutions.”

The decision to transfer the collection from New York City came a year after financial concerns forced the South Street Seaport Museum to downsize its staff in June 2004, including laying off its archaeologist. This left the archaeology collection without an experienced archaeologist to oversee its care. After subsequent attempts to obtain additional funding during the summer and early fall of 2004 were unsuccessful, it was decided to look for a new home for the collection.

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“South Street Seaport Museum is deeply indebted to the staff and directors of the New York State Museum for helping us to affect this transfer,” said Paula Mayo, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum. “We are delighted with the new home for this extraordinary collection, where it will be accessible to scholars and other researchers.”

“The South Street Seaport Museum was faced with a very difficult decision and should be commended for its responsible stewardship and careful consideration of how best to preserve and protect this valuable collection, while also ensuring its accessibility,” said Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried. “This acquisition will complement the State Museum’s own collection of over 500,000 artifacts obtained from urban excavations in Albany and make the Museum the primary source of archaeological materials for New Netherland.”

The Seaport collection resulted from excavations at a dozen archaeological sites throughout New York City, particularly lower Manhattan, during the past two decades. One of them was the Broad Street Financial Center site, which was excavated in 1983 and where archaeologists discovered trash deposits in the backyards of Holland natives who settled in New Amsterdam in the 1600s. Another was the Assay site, which was excavated in 1984 along Front Street, between Old Slip and Gouverneur Lane, and revealed the wharfs built after the American Revolution that created the New York City waterfront.

The artifacts in the collection include items from everyday life, as well as merchandise from all over the world that had been shipped to the bustling trade center. Included are china cups and glass bottles, pewter plates and spoons, buttons, pins, shoe buckles, building fixtures, glass beads, clay pipes, an ivory comb, wig curlers, woman’s hairbrush and child’s toy boat.

The artifacts will be housed at the CEC, which offers many other resources for the study of the history and archeology of New Netherland, which includes the state’s Hudson Valley. The State Archives (www.archives.nysed.gov) has 12,000 pages of colonial Dutch governmental records dating from 1638-1670. In 1999, as part of a White House Millennium Council initiative, these records were named an official project of Save America’s Treasures, and the State Archives received $80,000 to conserve the collection. The State Library’s New Netherland project transcribes, translates and publishes Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the 17th century colony of New Netherland (http://www.nnp.org/.) Researchers have access to early printed books, as well as family papers and land documents of influential Dutch colonists through the Manuscripts and Special Collections unit of the Library (). The State Museum also has the Colonial Albany Social History Project http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html).that provides information on the people of colonial Albany and their world.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – Timothy Kenslea, author of The Sedgwicks in Love: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage in the Early Republic, will read from his book and discuss his research into changes in courtship and marriage in the early 19th century on July 6th at 7 p.m. at the New York State Museum Theater.

The Sedgwicks in Love is a narrative exploration of the evolving relationship between men and women in the generation born just after the American Revolution. The book focuses on seven brothers and sisters of one prominent family – the Sedgwicks of Massachusetts -- with members living in the Berkshires, Albany, New York City, and Boston.

These Sedgwick brothers and sisters wrote everything down, making it possible for Kenslea to tell their stories in a nonfiction narrative that has continuing characters, a plot, and even occasional passages of dialogue, quoted and cited from Sedgwick family papers archived at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.

Kenslea, a history teacher at Norwell High School in Norwell, Massachusetts, is on leave this year to promote The Sedgwicks in Love. The book was published in January by Northeastern University Press, a member press of the University Press of New England consortium, based in Hanover, New Hampshire. Since last fall, Kenslea has spoken about the book and his research to nearly 40 audiences all over New England and upstate New York.

The book has gone into a second hardcover printing—a rare event for a university press book.

Following the program, a just-released paperback edition of The Sedgwicks in Love, also published by Northeastern/UPNE, will be availablefor sale at the Museum and for signing by the author, through the cooperation of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza.

The Sedgwicks are the sons and daughters of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and Judge Theodore Sedgwick and his wife, Pamela Dwight Sedgwick. They had arranged marriages and

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affectionate marriages, including one in which a woman rejected a partner chosen by her father in order to marry a Sedgwick brother. The Sedgwicks had failed courtships and successful ones, from which they learned the intricate rules of courting at that time. A case of domestic violence revealed how limited a woman’s options were if she wanted to end her marriage. A squabble over an inheritance reflected how severely women’s property rights were restricted.

In the course of a long engagement, one couple exchanged nearly a hundred letters, carefully laying out their vision of their anticipated union. A sister, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, finally and deliberately chose to forego marriage in order to live the life she had envisioned for herself as a writer.

TheBoston Globe said of The Sedgwicks in Love, “Kenslea’s nonfiction narrative account of the role of marriage choices in this brave new world is an American incursion into Jane Austen

territory.”Indiana University historian Michael McGerr observed, “In these thoughtful, moving studies of courtship and marriage, [Kenslea] illuminates both the particular culture of the early United States and some of the more enduring issues of intimate relationships.” Award-winning historian Henry Wiencek commented, “The Sedgwicks in Love manages to combine scrupulous scholarship and a moving human story.”

More information about the book, reviewers’ comments and a complete list of book tour events is available at the author’s web site: http://www.freewebs.com/timothykenslea/index.htm.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany and is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – A new exhibition opens on June 29 at the New York State Museum showcasing the works of Adirondack photographer and conservationist Seneca Ray Stoddard, who was instrumental in the establishment of the “forever wild” Adirondack Park.

Seneca Ray Stoddard: Capturing the Adirondacks is open through February 24, 2013 in Crossroads Gallery. It includes over 100 of Stoddard’s photographs, an Adirondack guideboat, freight boat, camera, copies of Stoddard’s books and several of his paintings. There also are several Stoddard photos of the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island. These and other items come from the State Museum’s collection of more than 500 Stoddard prints and also from the collections of the New York State Library and the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls.

“This is the first time the State Museum has exhibited these remarkably important photographs from our extensive Seneca Ray Stoddard collection,” said Museum Director Mark Schaming. “It’s an enormously rich visual turn-of-the century record of the Adirondacks, as well as other magnificent regions of the state. Stoddard’s work continues to be an important resource in understanding the history and development of the Adirondack region.”

An online version of the exhibition is also available on the State Museum website at

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/virtual/exhibits/SRS/ .

Born in Wilton, Saratoga County in 1844, Stoddard was no doubt inspired by the Adirondacks at an early age. A self-taught painter, he was first employed as an ornamental painter at a railroad car manufactory in Green Island. He moved to Glens Falls in 1864, where he worked with sketches and paintings until his death there in 1917.

Early on he sought to preserve the beauty of the Adirondacks through his paintings but then became attracted to photography’s unique ability to capture the environment. He was one of the first to capture the Adirondacks through photographs. He used the then recently introduced wet-plate process of photography. Though extremely cumbersome by today’s standards, the technique was the first practical way to record distant scenes. It required Stoddard to bring his entire darkroom with him into the Adirondack wilderness.

His renown as a photographer quickly grew once he settled in Glens Falls, which also became his base camp for his explorations of the Adirondacks. He studied the Adirondacks intensely over a 50-year period.

Stoddard’s photos showed the challenges travelers faced in getting to the still undeveloped wilderness, along with their enjoyment of finally reaching their destination. His writings and photographs indicate that he was especially skilled at working with people from diverse economic backgrounds in a variety of settings. This was especially important as he used his photos to capture the changing Adirondack landscape as railroads were introduced and the area became an increasingly important destination for the burgeoning middle-class tourist, but also for the newly wealthy during the “Gilded Age.”

His work stimulated even further interest as he promoted the Adirondacks through his photographs and writings on the beauty, people and hotels of the region. Stoddard’s photographs showed the constancy of the natural beauty of the Adirondacks along with the changes that resulted from logging and mining, to hotels and railroads. As unregulated mining and logging devastated much of the pristine Adirondack scenery, Stoddard documented the loss and used those images to foster a new ethic of responsibility for the landscape. His work was instrumental in shaping public opinion about tourism, leading to the 1892 “Forever Wild” clause in the New York State Constitution.

The State Museum purchased over 500 historic Stoddard prints in 1972 in the process of acquiring historic resources for the Museum’s Adirondack Hall. They included albumen prints from Stoddard’s own working files, many with penciled notes. Nearly all are of the landscapes, buildings and people of the Adirondacks taken primarily in the 1870s and 1880s.

The State Museum will present several programs in conjunction with the Stoddard exhibition. There will be guided tours of the exhibition on September 8 and December 8 from 1-2 p.m. Stoddard will also be the focus of Family Fun Day on September 15 from1-4 p.m.

Established in 1836, the New York State Museum is a program of the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, NY – “Harvest in New York’’ will be the theme of the New York State

Museum’s next Family Fun Weekend, September 2 – 3.

The program, which is presented free of charge, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. both

days and will acquaint young people with the steps that go into producing our food

and clothing.

Throughout the afternoon Saturday, participants will watch sheep’s wool transformed

with a “sheep to shawl’’ demonstration by Wendy Nollner, a visitor services assistant at

the Museum. Using photographs and samples, she will show how early settlers sheared

the sheep and prepared the fleece for spinning into yarn. Food preservation is another

harvest practice that will be highlighted on Saturday, when Sandra Varno, a registered

dietician and nutrition educator from Cornell University Cooperative Extension of

Albany County, describes the process and provides examples of the result. Varno will

show a video by Alice Waters, a California-based chef who has become well-known for

promoting healthy, locally-grown food in schools and restaurants.

Harvest treats will be offered up both days. On Saturday only, Indian Ladder Farms of

Altamont will provide samples of its many varieties of apples to allow participants to

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taste the difference. On Sunday, the Museum will follow with its own apple tasting

activity, which will also emphasize the importance of products that are grown in the

region.

At 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday a display in the Museum’s Star Lab

will show how Native People used the sky to determine when to harvest their crops and

when to hunt. The show, which will also discuss Native American mythology, will be

presented in the Museum Theater. Attendance is limited to 30 people and tickets must be

picked up in the lobby.

All other activities will be held in the lobby. Both afternoons, young people can make

crafts using popcorn or dried corn. Using plaster of Paris, they can also make harvest

leaves that can be turned into refrigerator magnets. Also scheduled are a scavenger hunt

with prizes and a 3:30 p.m. story time featuring tales of harvest in New York.

Family Fun Weekends offer theme-based family activities, which are held the first

weekend of the month.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York

StateEducation Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in

Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving,

Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible.

Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518)

474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – The New York State Museum, State Library and State Archives will be closed to the public on Saturday, September 24 due to semi-annual routine maintenance of electrical systems in the Cultural Education Center (CEC).

The Cultural Education Center is closed on Sundays. The State Museum, Library and Archives will reopen on Monday, September 26.

The State Museum, Archives and Library are part of the Office of Cultural Education (OCE) and are programs of the New York State Education Department. They are located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the OCE website.

ALBANY – “Ice Age Legacy – Rocks, Ice, People” will be the theme of the New York State Museum’s April lecture series, beginning April 7.

The free lectures will be offered on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater. The schedule and topics are:

• April 7 – “A Brief Glacial History of NY on Ice.” New York State Museum scientist Dr. Andrew Kozlowski will discuss the cause and effect of glaciation and provide an overview of New York’s glacial history, and recent progress and discoveries that refine our understanding of glaciation and deglaciation in the Great Lakes Region.

   

• April 14 – “Giant Foods, Inland Oceans, and Dead Mammals.” Dr. Dave Franzi of SUNY Plattsburgh will speak about the deglaciation and late glacial environments of the northeastern Adirondack Mountains and Champlain Valley. He will present evidence for catastrophic breakouts from large proglacial lakes and provide details on a recent discovery of seal bones in the Champlain Sea clay deposits.

   

• April 21 – “Mysterious Boulders, Rock Avalanches, and the Origin of ‘Darwin’s Boulders.’ ” In 1833 Charles Darwin documented and was intrigued by an association of huge boulders along the Atlantic Ocean in Tierra del Fuego. Dr. Edward Evenson of Lehigh University will use experience gained from 30 years of field work around the world to unravel the mystery of “Darwin’s Boulders” This talk is based on the article in the December 2009 issue of GSA Today, the Geological Society of America journal.

   

• April 28 – “After the Ice: Human Colonization of New York.” Humans first explored New York about 13,000 years ago, as this region was emerging from the “Ice Age.” Dr. Jonathan Lothrop, curator of Archaeology at the New York State Museum, reviews ongoing research on how and when Native Americans colonized, and adapted to the Late Pleistocene landscapes of New York between 11,000 and 8,000 B.C.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – A new exhibition -- Shadow and Substance: African American Images from The Burns Archive -- will open at the New York State Museum October 15, showcasing rarely-seen photographs from one of the largest private photography collections in the world.

Open through March 31, 2012 in the Photography Gallery, the exhibition allows the viewer to perceive how African-Americans were seen by others and how they wished to be seen. These images do not tell a complete story of the past, but their eloquent shadows provide unique glimpses into the lives of African-Americans over the past 160 years.

The 113 images in Shadow and Substance include portraits, snapshots and photographs of celebration, tragedy and quiet joy, work and family, strength and perseverance. From early images of slaves and Civil War soldiers to new voters and political activists, the exhibition is filled with illustrations of achievement and shocking evidence of intolerance. Some images may not be suitable for young children.

The images were culled from the comprehensive Burns Archive of Historic Vintage Photographs that include specializations in medical and health care, death and dying, sports and recreation, in addition to images of African-Americans. The collection was amassed by Dr. Stanley B. Burns, an ophthalmologist, collector and curator in New York City who was the founding donor for several photography collections, including those of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Burns has authored several books including “A Morning’s Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive & Collection, 1843-1939”; “Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America” and “Forgotten Marriage: The Painted Tintype and Decorative Frame, 1860-1910.”

The traveling exhibition is organized by the Indiana State Museum and curated by Dr. Modupe Labode, assistant professor of history and public scholar of African-American History and Museum Studies at Indiana University.

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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Ann Zane Shanks: Behind the Lens will open at the New York State Museum May 14th, showcasing Shanks’ works, which span her 50-year career as an award-winning photographer, filmmaker, producer, director and author.

The retrospective exhibition, in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall, includes about 69 photographic prints, as well as many of the magazines and books in which they first appeared. Previously seen at the New-York Historical Society, the exhibition covers several themes of Shanks’ work from the 1950s through the present - life in America, children, travel and celebrities. Her first film, Central Park (1970), an independent short acquired by Columbia Pictures, also will be shown continuously in the gallery.

Open through February 26, 2006, the exhibition is organized by guest curator Bonnie Yochelson. Her previous exhibitions include Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York, 1935-1939 (Museum of the City of New York, 1998), which was at the State Museum November 2000 through April 2001.

A current resident of Sheffield, Mass. and native of Brooklyn, Shanks began her photography career in 1950 after meeting and being influenced by Desire Berman, a photographer and white South African anti-apartheid activist who was studying with Berenice Abbott at the New School of Social Research in New York. Shanks studied photography at the Photo League in New York, where she worked with a group of socially conscious photographers, who were among the leading photographers of the day. By 1955 her documentation of the Third Avenue elevated train earned her a solo exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.

Since then her work has been exhibited in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography. Her photographs also have appeared in publications such as Time, Woman’s Day, Esquire, Fortune and the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

In addition to her many celebrity photographs (Bette Davis, Angelica Huston, Catherine Deneuve, James Brown, Judy Garland), Shanks’ primary focus was always in documenting people involved in the political and social issues of the time, as she traveled throughout the world, often on assignment. Viewers are frequently surprised to find a sharp sense of humor reflected in her work.

Her photos also appear in a recycling book she wrote for young adults entitled About Garbage and Stuff (Viking Press, 1973). Subsequent books have included Old is What You Get (Viking Press, 1976) and Busted Lives: Dialogues with Kids in Jail (Delacorte Press, 1982).

During the 1970s Shanks began another career as a film and television producer-director, winning 27 film festival awards and two Emmy nominations. In the 1980s she branched out into theatre, producing and directing on and off Broadway plays based on the works of Lillian Hellman and S. J. Perelman.

She also has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, UCLA and the Beijing Academy of Film and Television. Most recently, she was at the Colloquium for Women of Indiana University, along with former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Shanks will participate in a free “Meet the Artist” program at the State Museum on Saturday, May 14th at 2 p.m. in the Museum Theater. She will talk about her multi-faceted career and will welcome questions from the audience. Shanks also will sign copies of her recently published book, Ann Zane Shanks - Photographs, which will be available in the Museum Shop.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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ALBANY, NY – “Shells” is the theme for the next Family Fun Day on Saturday, August 15 at the New York State Museum.

Family Fun Day will take place from 1-4 p.m. on the fourth floor of the New York State Museum. Activities are free of charge. Visitors will be able to make and take home a “seashell creature,” play a game and win a prize, and receive a fun and informational packet to take home. There also will be a coloring table and a hands-on teaching cart on shells and other sea life.

Family Fun Day offers theme-based family activities on the third Saturday of the month during the summer. The full weekend schedule will resume in the fall.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – A new exhibition -- Sheridan Hollow: A Very Working-Class Neighborhood – opens at the New York State Museum June 15, based on archaeological research that provides new insight into the realities of daily life and health conditions in one of Albany’s poorest mid-19th century working-class neighborhoods.

Open through October 14 in a section of the Charles L. Fisher Gallery, the exhibition presents the historic context of the development of the Sheridan Hollow neighborhood. It outlines the development of water supply and waste systems that served this quarter of the city, and describes daily life for the residents there, exploring what archaeology can reveal about health conditions.

In accordance with state historic preservation guidelines, an archaeological survey of the site was conducted prior to the construction of a parking garage on Sheridan Avenue by the New York State Office of General Services (OGS). Construction site manager Clough Harbour Associates hired Hartgen Archeological Associates to investigate the site before the OGS garage was constructed and completed in August 2006. Hartgen’s research provided the basis for the Sheridan Hollow exhibition.

"OGS is pleased to be able to collaborate with the New York State Museum on this exhibition, which sheds light on how people lived in Albany," said Commissioner John C. Egan. "OGS remains committed to preserving the past, while providing quality facilities for New Yorkers."

The project site is located on Sheridan Avenue, west of Hawk Street and east of Swan Street. Sheridan Avenue runs along a ravine carved out by the Fox Creek, and the archaeological site is situated at the bottom of the ravine. The land to the south of it is a very steep slope which, at one time, was the edge of the city. Around 1840, the creek was enclosed in a buried culvert and the ravine was then filled to accommodate more streets and houses. Because of its location near the creek and steep slope, the area had poor drainage, but cheaply constructed housing there made it affordable to those with limited economic means.

The exhibition notes that there was a housing shortage in Albany in the mid-1900s when railroads, and the Erie and Champlain canals, expanded trade and caused a population boom. In neighborhoods like Sheridan Hollow, flats often accompanied multiple families and boarders. In 1850, 84 people, in 19 family groups, were crowded into the four small houses on the archaeological site. Many of the neighborhood’s residents were Irish immigrants. Some were widowed spouses or parentless children who could not afford to rent on their own.

Archaeologists uncovered privies, which provided clues about the diets of Sheridan Hollow residents, as well as information on how waste was handled. They also were able to determine the locations of drains and a cistern, which showed how the city’s water supply system developed.

Researchers believe Sheridan Hollow residents were commonly afflicted with two types of parasites – roundworm and ringworm. Although parasite levels across Albany peaked in the early 19th century, they remained elevated at the Sheridan Hollow site through the turn of the century. Unlike residents in other parts of Albany, those in Sheridan Hollow continued using outhouses until the 1920s, as well as public wells that were likely contaminated from runoff containing human waste.

The exhibition displays several items uncovered by archaeologists that provide insights into daily life in Sheridan Hollow, including medicine bottles that could have contained opium or cocaine, syringe fragments, pipes decorated with shamrocks, toothbrush handles and a blown-glass rat whimsy. A whimsy was a small fanciful glass article, usually a flower or animal, made during off-hours by a glass blower with glass left over from a day’s work.

The State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY (MAY 14, 2008) – A New York State Museum researcher has co-authored a new study published today in a British scientific journal, which sheds new light on sleep patterns in wild animals and will also help scientists understand the function of sleep in humans.

This study, the first-ever to use an electroencephalogram (EEG) to study sleep in wild animals, shows that animals in captivity may sleep more than they do in the wild, thus emphasizing the need for more study of animals in their natural conditions. In the past, a standard method for studying the purpose of sleep has been to compare EEG studies of different species, which required them to be in a laboratory setting because of the bulky equipment.

In this study a team of researchers fit free-ranging three-toed sloths with miniature EEG recorders and found that they were sleeping only 9.6 hours per day -- six hours less than captive sloths did. "Sloths in captivity don't really have anything to do so we weren't surprised that they sleep more," said Roland Kays, co-author and curator of mammals at the New York State Museum. "However, the six-hour difference was surprising. This was more than an extra little siesta in the middle of the day, and has real implications for our understanding of sleep in all animals."

Kays was part of a team of international researchers working on the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Their study was published online today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, a primarily online, peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality biology research.

“We are fascinated that some animal species sleep far longer than do others,” said first author, Niels Rattenborg of the Sleep & Flight Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. “If we can determine the reasons for variations in sleep patterns, we will gain insight into the function of sleep in mammals, including humans. But if animals behave differently in captivity, where all previous comparative studies were performed, than they do in the environments where they evolved, measuring their brain activity in captivity can lead to the wrong conclusions.

“We got around this problem by using a technique developed for monitoring brain activity in humans, in conjunction with a newly developed miniature recorder for neurophysiological data, in order to monitor sleep in the wild,” said Rattenborg.

In addition to the brain activity sensors worn as a cap on their heads, three adult sloths were also each fitted with radio-telemetry collars and accelerometers so that their exact locations and movements could be monitored over the following five days. The activity of two other sloths was monitored for a longer seven-month period, via radio-telemetry collar alone, using a unique Automated Radio Telemetry System in place on the island.

The placement of brain activity monitors on sloths, living among treetops 130 feet above the forest floor, demonstrates the feasibility of understanding a complex behavior, such as sleep, in the complex tropical forest environment and is expected to lead to more refined, comparative sleep research work.

“The beauty of the automated telemetry system is that it makes a new suite of animal behavior studies possible,” said Martin Wikelski, director of the Plank Institute, researcher at Princeton University and research associate at the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – As part of the “Let’s Move” initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama, the New York State Museum is offering “Smart ’N Healthy: Museum Movers and Shakers,” a six-week activity and health program for children.

Designed for children, ages 7-11, “Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens” was launched by Mrs. Obama and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to combat the increase in childhood obesity. Museums and gardens across the nation are asked by the First Lady to create interactive exhibitions and programs that promote physical activity and inform visitors about healthy food choices.

“Smart ’N Healthy” is a free program that will run from Oct. 1 through Nov. 12 on Saturday mornings at the State Museum from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Parents may participate in any or all of the sessions but are especially encouraged to attend the special cooking classes led by Sandra Varno of the Cornell Cooperative Extension on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5. Also, Chef Yono Purnomo of Yono’s restaurant in Albany will teach participants how to make a quick and healthy snack on Oct. 1. Registration for the “Smart’N Healthy” program is necessary and closes Sept. 26. To register call Peggy Steinbach at 518/474-1569 or email her at psteinba@mail.nysed.gov.

All activities will begin at the State Museum. They include a walk to the Port of Albany to see a Coast Guard cutter on Oct. 8; lessons on the “Let’s Move” dance, taught by an eba Center for Dance instructor, on Oct. 22; ZUMBA for Kids on Oct. 29 and a walk to the grocery store on Nov. 5 to buy groceries before preparing a meal. The “Smart ’N Healthy” program will conclude with an award ceremony and farewell party, with prizes for participants, on Nov. 12.

The Museum program was developed by The Links, Inc., an international organization of predominately African-American professional women, who identified childhood obesity as a problem in the African-American community in 2006. Using a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, the Links

partnered with the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta to research the impact of childhood obesity in the African-American community and develop a sound educational program that could be used as a tool to combat the growing epidemic.

Founded in 1836, the State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY – The New York State Museum will host a series of evening lectures this fall focusing on the Hudson River Valley, as well as a separate lecture on the mastodons of New York State.

The Cohoes Mastodon and Other Mastodons of New York will be the topic of a lecture on Tuesday, October 23 at 7 p.m. Dr. Robert S. Feranec, the Museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology, will discuss the discovery of the Cohoes and other famous mastodons in New York State and the scientific research associated with these important finds.

All lectures are free and will be in the Carole F. Huxley Theater. The following lectures will be held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.:

• October 3 –Archaeology at the Adirondack Iron and Steel Company’s ‘‘New Furnace.”

Museum Archaeologist David Staley presents the results of Cultural Resource Survey Program excavations at a 19th century industrial site, including new details about furnace construction, operation, and site-decay processes.

• October 10 -- Glacial Lakes and Landscapes of the Hudson Valley Region. During the last glaciation, blocked and altered drainage created large lakes in the Hudson Valley. Museum Senior Scientist Dr. Andrew Kozlowski discusses how lake systems and geologic deposits provided many resources for eventual settlers in the Albany region.
• October 17 --150 Million Years of New York History: Sedimentary Rocks of the Central Hudson Valley. The central Hudson Valley holds a history of Earth and life from about 520 to 370 million years ago. Museum Geologist Dr. Chuck Ver Straeten examines key events from that time and focuses on rocks and fossils west of the Hudson, including the Shawangunks and Catskills.
• October 24 -- The Decorative Arts: A Hudson Valley Sampler. John Scherer, the Museum’s curator of decorative arts, discusses the Hudson Valley’s distinctive furniture and early pottery manufacturing and how images of the region’s picturesque scenery flooded both the American

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and European market through the invention of lithography.

• November 7 -- The Revolution in Albany: Poverty and the Law, 1750 to 1800. Tricia Barbagallo, senior research associate at the Museum’s Colonial Albany Social History Project, highlights people listed on the City of Albany’s first poor list in 1799. She also discusses the causes of indigence, the state policy on relief, and how the city of Albany and paupers manipulated laws.
• November 14 -- Geologic History of the Lower Hudson River: Where North America Almost Broke Apart. State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing reconstructs the ancient history of the lower Hudson River Valley and explains why the modern river follows the western edge of the Appalachians south of Glens Falls, but crosses the Appalachians at the Hudson Highlands.
• November 28 -- The Schuyler Flatts Burial Ground: A Unique View of African Life in Colonial Albany. Discovery of an unmarked 1700s burial ground in the town of Colonie allows new insight into the lives of enslaved Africans in Colonial Albany. Museum Bioarchaeologists Lisa Anderson and Vanessa Dale discuss their research.
• December 5 -- Fishes of the Lower Hudson: Freshwater Fishes, Marine Strays, and the Exotic. The fish assemblage of the lower Hudson is the richest in New York State. The species list has changed over the past 200 years, with additions, losses, and a dramatic change in relative abundances. Museum Ichthyology Curator Dr. Robert Daniels explains what’s here, what’s gone, and whether we should be concerned.
• December 12 -- Hudson Valley Perspectives: Paintings from the NYSM Collection.

Curator of Art and Architecture Ron Burch discusses 19th and 20th century artists and their perceptions of the Hudson Valley. Examples from the collection include folk art, Hudson River School art, and art funded by the pre-WWII Works Progress Administration.

• December 19 – Iron Deposits Along the Hudson River Valley. The rugged Hudson Valley in the Adirondack Mountains and the Hudson Highlands are known for their abundant Precambrian iron ores and beautiful minerals. Dr. Marian Lupulescu, curator of minerals, presents his new research results and discusses iron deposit origins.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Seventy years after the debut of Albany’s first Soap Box Derby, the New York State Museum will mark the occasion with the opening of a small exhibition on the Derby June 8, followed by an awards ceremony at the Museum in conjunction with this year’s Albany competition.

“Derby Doings: The All-American Soap Box Derby,” will be open in the Museum lobby until August 15. The annual Capital District Soap Box Derby competition will be held in front of the State Museum on Madison Avenue on Saturday, June 12th and Sunday, June 13th. The awards ceremony in the Museum’s Huxley Theater will immediately follow Sunday’s races at approximately 5 p.m. The winners in three divisions will advance, all expenses paid, to the World Championships in Akron, Ohio later in July.

The exhibition traces the history of the Derby to the summer of 1933 when Dayton, Ohio Daily News photographer Myron Scott saw three boys racing down the hill and proposed what he expected would be a one-time competition. Nineteen children showed up and Scott was compelled to arrange for another competition on August 19, 1933. Intensely publicized, the event attracted 362 contestants and about 40,000 spectators.

The first national championship which Scott called the All-American Soap Box Derby was launched the following year with promotional and financial support from newspapers, magazines and Chevrolet. In 1935, the Derby relocated to Akron, Ohio.

Albany’s first competition dates to 1940 when 15,000 people watched 100 boys compete in the first races on Clermont Avenue. The Derby was locally sponsored and promoted chiefly by Chevrolet automobile dealers and the Albany Times Union. Ongoing support from both allowed such large events to continue through the 1940s. The Derby was televised by WRGB in 1949. Racing continued off and on at various locations, with different sponsors, until it ceased in the 1970s.

However, the Albany Derby was revived in 2006, managed by Ginger Miller. Boys and girls, ages 8-18, are now invited to participate.The Derby was also held in Schenectady at one time. Richard Russell built two cars – one in 1948 and the other in 1949 -- for the annual races on Fehr Avenue in Schenectady. He constructed both of his cars in a building at the Mattice service station and Mattice Fuel Oil service facility at 1025 Altamont Ave. in Schenectady, a business dating from the 1920s. It is still operated by the Russell family, including Richard Russell and his son, Richard Russell Jr., who donated the Russell car to the State Museum in 1995.

The 1949 Russell car will be on display in the exhibition, along with a contemporary Super Stock model built by Michael Morawski in 2007. He won with it on Madison Avenue in 2008 and went on to compete in Akron later that summer. Visitors can also see a helmet worn by Russell at the Schenectady races in 1948 and 1949, a trophy won by Donald Matthews in the Albany derby in July 1941, and several photographs that appeared in the Times Union and Daily Gazette in Schenectady.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

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ALBANY, NY – Albany County District Attorney David Soares will speak about hate crimes on Thursday, June 10 at the New York State Museum as part of a series of June programs to be held at the Museum in recognition of Gay Pride Month.

In a presentation that will take place in the Huxley Theater at 7 p.m., Soares will draw on his own experiences as a person of color and talk about offenses that have occurred in the Capital Region and around the nation in explaining why hate crimes should be a matter of concern to everyone.

A graduate of Albany Law School, Soares was elected district attorney in 2004 in what was characterized as a “stunning political upset.” His outspoken and sometimes controversial views have garnered him extensive national attention and recognition.

Other Museum programs include a panel discussion on Tuesday, June 8 at 7 p.m. in the Huxley Theater focusing on the history of the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council (CDGLCC). The oldest continuously operating organization of its kind in the nation, CDGLCC is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

On Saturday, June 12 from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., the Museum will hold Family Diversity Day, a celebration of the diversity of family life featuring hands-on educational activities for children. Mayor Gerald Jennings has declared June 12 Family Diversity Day in the city of Albany. In addition to the Museum’s activities, there will be outdoor events at Washington Park, including live music on the stage.

Further details about State Museum Gay Pride events are available by calling (518) 473-2936.

Established in 1836, the State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.

ALBANY, N.Y. – State historic sites and cultural institutions will provide fun hands-on activities and educational artifacts to explore during “New York State’s Great Places and Spaces” event Saturday, January 14 at the New York State Museum.

The free event, which is part of the Museum’s January Family Fun Day, will be held from noon to 4 p.m. in several first floor galleries including Adirondack Wilderness, Birds of New York, Native Peoples of New York and South Hall.

Visitors will be able to play the Hudson River Valley Trading Game on a 32-foot long game board; try a flight simulator; explore reproduction 17th-century Dutch artifacts from New Netherland; participate in logging/lumberjack activities; learn about medicinal herbs used by the Shaker community and see an 18th-century, fully equipped “soldier” from General Washington’s Continental Army.

There also will be a hands-on Exploration Station near the longhouse in the Native Peoples gallery from 12-1 p.m. and from 2-4 p.m. State Museum staff also will conduct tours of the State Museum’s “From the Collections” exhibition at 1, 2 and 3 p.m.

Event participants include the State Museum, State Library, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Albany City Gallery, Historic Cherry Hill, the Hudson River Heritage Organization, the Hyde Collection, Living Walls, the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site, the Rensselaer County Historical Society/Hart-Cluett House, the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site, Clermont State Historic Site, the Shaker Museum, Albany County Historical Society/Ten Broeck Mansion, Historic Cherry Hill, Crailo State Historic Site, Johnson Hall Historic Site, the Underground Railroad History Project, Salem Art Works, the Adirondack Museum, the Empire State Aerosciences Museum and representatives of the area Mohican Indian community.

Founded in 1836, the New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas

and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website.